Study of Stacking Structure of Amorphous Carbon by X-Ray Diffraction Technique

Random layered (graphene) structural parameters of the coals such as aromaticity fa, coal rank, number of carbon atoms per aromatic lamellae (n), lateral size La and stacking height Lc are determined using X-ray diffraction technique (XRD). It is found that the structural parameters like fa & Lc increases, where as interlayer spacing d002 decreases with increase in carbon content, aromaticity and coal rank. The number of layers and average number of carbon atoms per aromatic graphene are found to be varying from 7 to 8 and 16-21 for the coal samples with carbon content of 72-77.4%. A good linear relationship exists between number of layers and stacking height of the aromatic lamellae in coal.