Tailoring structures and properties of mesophase pitch-based carbon fibers based on isotropic/mesophase incompatible blends

Blends composed of isotropic and mesophase pitches in various proportions were used as precursors for carbon fibers. The effects of composition on the morphology of blends, precursor spinnability, transversal texture, and mechanical properties of the final carbon fiber were studied. The blends are binary incompatible phase-separation systems. When the content of isotropic pitch is ≤30 %, it is distributed uniformly in the mesophase matrix as spheres; whereas, complete phase inversion occurs when the content is ≥35 %. Blends containing isotropic pitch in dispersion phase show good spinnability and small-diameter fibers can be continuously drawn. The transversal texture of carbon fibers is transformed from a radial type with a crack along the fiber axis to an intermediate morphology between radial and random type by blending 20–30 % isotropic pitch. The tensile strength of carbon fibers with 20–30 % IPc is 2.5 times as high as the AR-based CF without the reduction of Young’s modulus.