OKTÓBER 16. – The mysterious case of graphite – in search of a graphite fingerprint

Arató Róbert, a Leobeni Egyetem kutatójának angol nyelvű előadása a Litoszféra Fluidum Kutató Laboratórium szervezésében.

Időpont: 2023.10.16. 17:00 - 18:00

Helyszín: ELTE Lágymányosi Campus, Déli Tömb (1117 Budapest, Pázmány P. sétány 1/C) Sztrókay terem (00-708) és Zoom platform

Regisztráció: https://forms.gle/PJfmv1gBbi9w1W916

Summary of the talk:

Graphite is an essential raw material in a range of applications due to its extraordinary chemical and physical properties, such as chemical resistance, electrical/thermal conductivity and flexibility. In 2021, about 1 million tons of natural graphite were mined globally, however the global demand is expected to rise by a factor of ~4 by 2050. As graphite is one of the fundamental raw materials in energy storage, its responsible sourcing is of prime importance. Yet, currently there is no routine methodology available to distinguish natural graphite occurrences from each other and/or trace graphite along the value-chain. As disappointing as this statement might sound for policymakers, the more opportunities it provides for detective-minded geoscientists.

In this presentation, I will provide a general insight into the process of developing a traceability protocol for a raw material and present answers to the following questions: How could/should samples for such purposes be obtained? Can we construct a representative global dataset? How should we prepare the samples? What should be measured: Structure?  Trace-elements? Isotopes? And finally, how can the data be evaluated?

I will present data obtained on natural graphite concentrates by a range of analytical methods, including Raman-spectroscopy, carbon stable isotope analysis, solution ICP-MS, LA-ICP-MS and LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy). I will dedicate extra attention to the potential of LIBS in geological applications and the evaluation of multivariate data by Python.

About the presenter:

Róbert Arató started his research career on ore deposits as a bachelor student at the Department of Mineralogy, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. After a one-year scholarship stay at the Thermochronology Laboratory in Göttingen, Germany, he graduated as a geologist from the Eötvös Loránd University in 2014. His research focus shifted to experimental geochemistry and magnetite-melt oxybarometry, while conducting his PhD research at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Bayreuth, Germany (2014-2017). His career continued at the K/Ar laboratory at the Insitute for Nuclear Research in Debrecen, Hungary where he has been responsible for fission-track dating since 2018. Recently, he was a Marie-Curie Fellow at the Department of Sedimentology in Göttingen (2021-2022), working on computer vision solutions for automated fission-track dating. Currently, he is involved in a Horizon research project on the traceability of critical raw materials at the University of Leoben, Austria. His research interests span (but are not restricted to) from thermochronology to thermobarometry and sedimentology, instrumental analytics being the common denominator in all those fields. He is honoured to give a presentation at the Lithosphere Fluid Research Lab (LRG), to which he has been connected by numerous professional and friendly links since his undergraduate years.

About the organizer:

Since the formation of the Lithosphere Fluid Research Laboratory (LRG) in 1998, the group led by Csaba Szabó published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, 25 PhD theses and more than 50 TDK and OTDK winning student theses. In their scientific work, the students of the LRG cover broad areas of geochemistry of the lithosphere and its fluids, such as fluid and melt inclusions in various geological environments, petrology of the lower crust and the upper mantle, geological storage of CO2 and H2, the source and fate of radon, or environmental and urban geochemistry of former industrial centers. The LRG initiated this seminar series in 2019, to invite former students of the laboratory (who are now accomplished scientists) to present their research to the next generation of geochemists.