Preparation of Mesocarbon Microbeads and Subsequent Heating Treatment

Abstract

The preparation of mesocarbon microbeads (MCMB) has been studied by heating coal tar pitch with different phenyl silicone oil content at 350°C for 2h.The spheres with diameters ranging from 0.54 to 11.4?m were obtained. The as-extracted MCMB when the silicone oil/coal pitch value was 3 had a very homogeneous size, a small diameter and also an excellent sphericity. The yield of MCMB was 8.3%, and microcrystalline structure was better. After stabilization, the spheres carbonized at 900°C still kept spherical, but broken into small particles during the graphitization. The stabilization destroyed the microcrystalline structure of as-extracted MCMB, but the microcrystalline structure became better after carbonization. The structure of graphitized MCMB at 2300°C was close to the graphite structure, and clear graphitization fringes were observable.