History
The Brazilian Carbon Association (Associação Brasileira de Carbono – ABCarb) is a non-profit organization founded on October 22nd, 2007. However, its emergence dates to 1992, when the 1st Technical-Scientific Meeting on Carbon/Graphite was organized. This meeting happened between November 4th – 6th at Rio de Janeiro, where more than 32 technical presentations and 200 researchers of the carbon scientific community were together in Copacabana fortress. The 2nd Technical-Scientific Meeting on Carbon/Graphite happened only in 1999, after overcoming several obstacles that prevented new meetings. This meeting was held at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology in Brazil, and more than 100 technical contributions were gathered, showing the size of the carbon scientific community and how this community was looking forward to more meetings about carbon.
Due to the success of the previous event and acknowledging the urge of a new specific meeting about carbon, it was held the 1st Brazilian Carbon Congress at Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba (UNIMEP) in 2002. This congress brought together several researchers from all over the country. This event also counted with internationally renowned researchers, such as Dr. Jacek Jagiello (Quantachrome Instruments – USA), Prof. Jacques Lamon (University of Bordeaux 1 and president of AMAC – Association of Composite Materials – France), Prof. Hassan Hannache (Hassan Il-Mohamedia University – Morocco) and Prof. Evaldo Corat (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE – Brazil). It had 135 scientific works, financial support of private companies, and support of the General Consulate of France in São Paulo.
The 2nd Brazilian Carbon Congress took place Vitória, Espírito Santo, in 2004. The event had 120 participants, including researchers, students, and professionals from companies in the area of carbonaceous materials and related topics. This event also featured plenary sessions of international researchers, such as Prof. Francisco Rodríguez-Reinoso (University of Alicante – Spain) and Prof. Ljubisa R. Radovic (Pennsylvania State University – USA). The event was sponsored by CNPq, Petrobras, Aracruz Celulose, CRQ-3ª Região, FACITEC, FEST, ITA, UNIMEP, UnB, IPD/CTEx, UCL, Banco do Nordeste, CST, Carboindustrial, Benetec, Vamtec, Carboderivados, Eucabraz and CVRD.
The 3rd Brazilian Carbon Congress happened in 2005. It was held in Rio de Janeiro city. Five international speakers were invited: Elzbieta Frackowiak (Poland); Isao Mochida (Japan); Brian Rand (UK); François Béguin (France); and Xavier Bourrat (France). In this event, 198 participants from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Portugal were able to share their knowledge and research on carbon. There were financial supports from Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, Centro Tecnológico do Exército, and Petrobras. It was at the end of this event that arose the interest in creating an association that would bring together researchers and companies involved with carbon.
The 4th Brazilian Carbon Congress took place in Gramado – RS in November 2007, right after the establishment of ABCarb. Six international speakers attended this event: Andrea C. Ferrari (United Kingdom); Constantina Lekakou (United Kingdom); Christoph Bubeck (Germany); Gerard L. Vignoles (France); Hisao Kanda (Japan); and Marc Monthioux (France). There were about 200 participants and financial support from Petrobras and FINEP.
The 5th Brazilian Carbon Congress was held again in Rio de Janeiro, in April 2011. The event had 115 participants and 6 international plenary sessions: Russell Judd Diefendorf (USA);Timothy Burchell (USA); Gareth B. Neighbor (United Kingdom); Sylvie Bonnamy (France); James Klett (USA); and Alain Penicaud (France). There was financial support from Petrobras, FAPEB, and FAPESP (Process 11/06410-0), supporting researchers from the state of São Paulo for the first time.
Once again, Vitória – ES was chosen to host the 6th Brazilian Carbon in November 2015. The event featured lectures by Luiz Depine de Castro (CTEx), Jacek Jagiello (Micromeritics), Malcolm Heggie (University of Surrey) and Ado Jorio de Vasconcelos (UFMG). There were about 120 attendees in this congress, which was sponsored by FAPES, CNPq, CAPES, Benemec Carbon Ind. Com. Ltda, Vale S/A and FAPESP (Process 15/17570-0).
The 10th anniversary of ABCarb was in 2017, same year that happened the 7th Brazilian Carbon Congress in Campos do Jordão – SP. This event had 6 plenary lectures of 50 minutes, 26 oral presentations of 20 minutes, and 84 posters divided in 3 sessions of 90 minutes. The congress had internationally recognized speakers, like Prof. Dr. Clascídia A. Furtado (CDTN/CNEN), Prof. Dr. Manoel O. Alvarez Méndez (UNIMEP), Prof. Dr. Andrés Cuña Suárez (Universidad de la República – Uruguay) and Prof. Dr. José Otávio Brito (USP/ESALQ). There was also a plenary session of TECSIS Technology and Advanced Systems, presented by MSc. Caetano Belda Martinez. This edition was supported by FAPESP (Process 17/17308-9).
The 8th Brazilian Carbon Congress was held in 2019 in São João del-Rei – MG. The event was promoted by professors and students from the Federal University of São João del-Rei (UFSJ) in association with the Federal Institute of the Southeast of Minas Gerais (IFSMG) and the Nuclear Technology Development Center (CDTN). There were 115 extended abstracts submitted and 10 invited speakers.
In 2021, due to the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, the 9th Brazilian Carbon Congress happened virtually for the first time. It was organized by researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) and the National Institute for Space Technologies (INPE). The event featured 13 lectures and 6 plenary sessions, given exclusively by renowned researchers in the carbon area. There were researchers from all regions of Brazil, as well as international participations of researchers from Uruguay and India. There was a panel discussion entitled “Carbon: from Oiapoque to Chuí”, resembling the most distant cities in Brazil. Each one of the 5 regions in Brazil was represented by a researcher from the Brazilian carbon community discuss research perspectives, challenges, and collaboration. The event had 74 submissions that were virtually presented as posters in the congress website. Students and researchers had the opportunity to interact using a virtual platform.