Preparation of mesocarbon microbeads and subsequent heating treatment

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. © 2009 The Berkeley Electronic Press. All rights reserved.