Pitch Fractionation.

Petroleum pitch Ashland A240 has been subjected to thermal treatment and solvent fractionation to produce refined pitches to be evaluated as impregnants for carbon-carbon composites. The solvent fractions were obtained by sequential Soxhlet extraction with solvents such as hexane, cyclohexane, toluene, and pyridine. The most severe thermal treatment produced a mesophase pitch approximately 50 mesophase an appreciable portion of the mesophase was soluble in strong solvents. There were substantial differences in chemical composition and in pyrolysis behavior of the fractions. As the depth of fraction increased, the pyrolysis yield and bloating increased, and the microstructure of the coke became finer until glassy microconstituents were formed in the deepest fractions.