Pyrolytic carbon

Pyrolytic carbon is a material similar to graphite, but with some covalent bonding between its graphene sheets as a result of imperfections in its production.

Pyrolytic carbon is man-made and not found in nature. Generally it is produced by heating a hydrocarbon nearly to its decomposition temperature, and permitting the graphite to crystallise (pyrolysis). One method is to heat synthetic fibers in a vacuum. Another method is to place seeds or a plate in the very hot gas to collect the graphite coating.