ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the early stages of carbonization of petroleum pitches produced from decant oils. Decant oil-based petroleum pitches, derived initially from the fluid catalytic cracking of petroleum residues, are used in preparation of numerous useful carbon and graphite products. In 1965 Brooks and Taylor discovered the mesophase state as an intermediate in the transformation of pitch to coke. This fundamental discovery led to the development of a process for high-modulus carbon fibers, attributed much to the pioneering work of L. S. Singer. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons comprise the dominant class of compounds present in a petroleum pitch. The carbonaceous mesophase develops initially as small anisotropic spherules that precipitate from the original isotropic pitch phase. The carbonaceous mesophase is slightly more dense than the isotropic phase from which it forms and therefore slowly settles to the bottom of a nonagitated reaction vessel at high temperatures.
