Applications of plasma for the preparation of carbon black

The preparation of carbon black using a plasma is presented, including its history, present activity and the prospect for industrial application. Under high temperature plasma, carbon black is produced by the pyrolysis of hydrocarbon: CnHm+energy (plasma)=nC+m/2 H2. Compared with traditional methods, the production of carbon black by means of a plasma has many advantages, such as high production yield with approximately 100?% carbon conversion, high performance due to small diameter of the primary particle and a large specific surface area, all of which are required for special applications. In addition the production process is clean with hydrogen as the only byproduct and no contamination from CO2 and NOx, and can be adapted to many kinds of raw material. At present, the Chinese carbon black industry strongly calls for fundamental research on the development of high performance carbon black production techniques with independent intellectual property rights. In light of such development, the necessity and capability of developing plasma techniques for high performance carbon black production are demonstrated.