Fabrication of Carbon Solids using Bulk Mesophase as Binder

Abstract

It is attempted to produce high density and high strength carbon solids from fine pulverized pitch coke and bulk mesophase (BM) without binder pitch. The fabrication method of carbon solids in this study is as follows: the fine pulverized coke is mixed with the BM, which is directly turned to carbon solids by densifying with a hot press and heat treatment so as to obtain a high density and high strength.In this experiment, fine pulverized coke sizes of three stages and two types of BM in which a volatile matter content is different, were used.The carbon solids obtained were examined for bending strength, and were investigated for the influence of fine coke sizes, types of BM and their blending ratio, and also hot pressing pressure and heat treatment temperature on the strength of carbon solids.The obtained results are as follows:(1) BM can be used as binder of fine coke.The carbon solids obtained by using this BM exhibited larger strength for using the high volatile matter BM than low volatile matter BM.(2) The carbon solids obtained by using the high volatile matter BM had the highest strength, when the blending ratio of BM and heat treatment temperature were20wt%and1100°C, respectively.(3) The carbon solids obtained by this process indicated that smaller size of fine coke particles give higher strength, maximizing with a hot pressing pressure of500kg/cm2 if the smallest size (3.5μm) is used and that the maximum strength becomes920kg/cm2, being5.2times stronger than graphite electrode rod.