• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.612-619
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• 2016

Pitch synthesis reaction was studied based on the effect for chemical composition of feedstock. Feedstock was selected as pyrolyzed fuel oil (PFO) and coal-tar (CT), which are by-products in petroleum and steel industry. Pitch was prepared at $420^{\circ}C$ for 180 minutes on atmospheric pressure by thermal treatment. Thermal stability and softening point (SP) of the prepared pitches were investigated and their molecular weight distribution was analyzed by MALDI-TOF. PFO has various aliphatic compounds and coal-tar has high aromaticity with 3 wt% of primary quinoline insolubles. The thermal property of PFO was enhanced with polymerization reaction during the thermal treatment with increased molecular weight range. But CT was inferior to PFO because of side reaction by hetero elements. CTP was appeared molecular weight by 0~200 m/z.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.495-500
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• 2011

Separation of naphthalene from pyrolyzed fuel oil, by product of Naphta cracking process (NCC) process, has been accomplished by the solvent extraction, distillation and purification process. The residual pyrolyzed fuel oil (PFO), called precursor of carbon materials, has been calcined at $300{\sim}800^{\circ}C$ in nitrogen gas to raw pitch. After the treatment of PFO by hexane and methanol, either a flake phased carbon at $350^{\circ}C$ or a carbon sphere at above $400^{\circ}C$ forms. As the calcination temperature increases, the shape of raw pitch changes from the flake phase to the sphere one, and the size of them decreases to several ${\mu}m$. Based on the BET and XRD spectrum, the carbon sphere is classified to a mesophase amorphous carbon with a cubic phase.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2024

In order to produce high-yield pitch-based activated carbon, pitch was synthesized by blending pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO) and coal-tar. Pitch was synthesized by varying the amount of coal-tar from 0~20% compared to PFO and reacting at 380~420 ℃ for 3 h. The synthesized pitch had a softening point between 80 and 260 ℃, and yields ranged from 10 to 40%. At all synthesis temperatures, as the coal-tar blending ratio increased, the yield increased and the softening point decreased. After considering the selected pitches (softening points: 230~260 ℃), pitches containing coal-tar were more volatile at a low boiling point and had a higher residual carbon content. This is a difference in the composition of coal-tar and PFO, and it was con- firmed that coal-tar has a lot of aromatics and PFO has a lot of aliphatics. The selected pitch was heated to 950 ℃ in a tubular reactor and physically activated with steam for 1 hour. Activated carbon containing coal-tar showed higher yield and microporosity compared to only PFO. In this study, the effect of increasing activated carbon yield by blending pitch raw materials was confirmed, and the physical activation characteristics according to the coal-tar mixing ratio were examined.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.652-656
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• 2018

In this study, effects of the reaction pressure were studied for petroleum-based pitch synthesis. A two-stage reaction process was performed based on different reaction pressure conditions. Each stage experiments for the two-stage reaction were consecutively carried out. The first stage was consisted of three different pressure conditions; high (10 bar), normal and low (0.1 bar). And the second stage was carried out at the normal and low (0.1 bar) pressure. The pitch synthesis was realized at $400^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. Thermal properties and molecular weight distributions of each samples were investigated by analyzing the softening point and MALDI-TOF data. Volatilized components during the pith synthesis were measured by GC-SIMDIS. In case of the first-step reaction with the high pressure condition, the low molecular weight component participated to the pitch formation more effectively and the pitch with the low softening point was obtained. However, for the case of the first-step with the low pressure, the low molecular weight component was vent outside and the partial coke formation occurred. Eventually, pitch properties such as the softening point and yield were controlled effectively by changing the pressure in the pitch synthesis reaction.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2021

In this study, a sensor for detection of nitric oxide (NO) gas was developed using petroleum pitch-based activated carbon which was synthesized from pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO). Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was added to increase molecular weight by stimulating a polymerization of components in PFO during the pitch synthesis process. The increase in the molecular weight of pitch contributed to the improvement of textural properties of activated carbon, such as the specific surface area and micropore volume. It also enhanced the sensitivity of NO gas sensor based on the activated carbon. In addition, the effect of PET addition during the pitch synthesis on the surface oxygen content and conductivity of activated carbon was investigated. Finally, the correlation of the sensitivity with physical properties of activated carbon was analyzed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.640-646
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• 2021

In this study, pitch was synthesized using pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO). Coke with mesophase microstructure was then prepared from the synthesized pitch and its properties were evaluated. Pitch was synthesized by poly-condensation reaction, which is an endothermic reaction at a temperature above 400 ℃ because the PFO was mainly composed of molecules with two to three aromatic rings. The Coke reactor was composed of the pretreatment reactor, preheater for applying heat energy, and coke drum for inducing microstructure of coke. Coke was prepared from synthesized pitch by controlling the temperature of the preheater to 400~490 ℃, and properties were evaluated by polarization microscope, XRD and Raman spectroscopy. The coke prepared at a preheater temperature of 460 ℃ identified flow anisotropic microstructure, and the electrical conductivity was 72.0 S/cm due to high crystallinity. And the flow anisotropic coke showed approximately 2.2 times higher electrical conductivity than that of Super-P, a conductive carbon material.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.207-218
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• 2017

In this study, pitch-based activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were modified with pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO). Carbonized ACF samples were activated at $850^{\circ}C$, $880^{\circ}C$ and $900^{\circ}C$. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a BET surface area apparatus were employed to evaluate the indoor radon removal of each sample. Among three samples, the BET surface area and micropore area of ACF880 recorded the highest value with $1,420m^2{\cdot}g^{-1}$ and $1,270m^2{\cdot}g^{-1}$. Moreover, ACF880 had the lowest external surface area and BJH adsorption cumulative surface area of pores with $151m^2{\cdot}g^{-1}$ and $35.5m^2{\cdot}g^{-1}$. This indicates that satisfactory surface area depends on the appropriate temperature. With the above scope, ACF880 also achieved the highest radon absorption rate and speed in comparison to other samples. Therefore, we suggest that the optimum activation temperature for PFO containing ACFs is $880^{\circ}C$ for effective indoor radon adsorption.

• Carbon letters
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• v.19
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• pp.72-78
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• 2016

Spinnable pitches and carbon fibers were successfully prepared from petroleum or coal pyrolysis residues. After pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO), slurry oil, and coal tar were simply filtered to eliminate the solid impurities, the characteristics of the raw materials were evaluated by elemental analysis, ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MALDI-TOF-MS), and so on. Spinnable pitches were prepared for melt-spinning carbon fiber through a simple distillation under strong nitrogen flow, and further vacuum distillation to obtain a high softening point. Carbon fibers were produced from the above pitches by single-hole melt spinning and additional heat treatment, for oxidization and carbonization. Even though spinnable pitches and carbon fibers were processed under the same conditions, the melt-spinning and properties of the carbon fiber were different depending on the raw materials. A fine carbon fiber could not be prepared from slurry oil, and the different diameter carbon fibers were produced from the PFO and coal tar pitch. These results seem to be closely correlated with the initial characteristics of the raw materials, under this simple processing condition.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.672-678
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• 2019

The electrochemical properties of pitch-coated natural graphite(NG) were investigated as an anode for lithium-ion batteries. The anode materials were prepared by heat-treatment of mixture of NG and petroleum pitch at $1000^{\circ}C$. The pitches with various softening points were used as carbon precursor. The physical properties of anode materials were analyzed by TGA, SEM, PSA and BET. As the softening point increased, the thickness of the coating layer increased and the specific surface area decreased. The electrochemical performances were investigated by initial charge/discharge efficiency, cycle stability, cyclic voltammetry, rate performance and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The carbon-coated NG using pitch with softening points of $250^{\circ}C$ showed an initial discharge capacity of 361 mAh/g and a coulombic efficiency of 92.6%. Also, the rate performance(5 C/0.2 C) was 1.6 times higher than that of NG, and it had a capacity retention (90%) after 50 cycles at 0.5 C.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.514-519
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• 2020

Graphite materials for lithium ion battery anode materials are the most commercially available due to their structural stability and low price. Recently, research efforts have been conducted on carbon coatings by improving side reactions at the edge site of carbon materials. The carbon coating process has classified into a CVD by chemical reaction, wet coating process with solvent and dry coating by mechanical impact. In this paper, the rapid crush/coating process was used to solve the problem of which only few parts of the carbon precursor (pitch) can be used and also environmental problems caused by solvent removal in the wet coating process. When the ratio of needle coke to pitch was 8 : 2 wt%, and the rapid crush/coating process was carried out, it was confirmed that the fracture surface was coated by pitch. The pitch-coated sample was treated at 2400 ℃ and 41.8% improvement in 10C/0.1C rate characteristic was observed. It is considered that the material simply manufactured through the simple crush/coating process can be used as an anode electrode material for a lithium ion battery.