Carbon materials of high density and strength prepared from oxidized mesophase pitch grains

Carbon grains for binderless molding were prepared by oxidization treatment of mesophase pitch at different temperatures, and carbon materials were prepared. The effects of oxidation temperature, molding pressure, and heat-treatment temperature on the physical properties of the carbon materials were investigated. Results indicate that increase in molding pressure significantly increases mechanical strength of the resulting carbon materials. The resultant carbon materials with homogeneous fine-mosaic texture, high density and strength are obtained when the grains are oxidized at 200 degrees C. The high-performance carbon materials are obtained when the grains oxidized at 200 degrees C, molded at 150MPa and then graphitized at 2200 degrees C, whose density, porosity, bending strength, and compressive strength are 2.02g/cm(3), 2.03%, 70.3MPa, 123.3MPa, respectively. Results show that oxidized mesophase pitch is a good precursor for preparing high-performance carbon materials.