Pressure-temperature microscopy of petroleum-derived hydrocarbons

An apparatus allowing microscopy of petroleum derived hydrocarbons at pressures and temperatures comparable to those encountered in the hydroprocessing of coal and oil, and its use in the study of pressure and temperature effects on the crystallization behavior of a decant oil-derived air blown-pitch (DODAB) is described in this paper. Crystallization of the mesophase from aromatic rich precursors can be used as a tracking vehicle whose anisotropy allows easy detection under the polarizing microscope. Mesophase formation pressure dependence using N/sub 2/ and H/sub 2/ reveals that there is a chemical effect associated with H/sub 2/ since N/sub 2/ pressure to 1900 psig had no effect on mesophase formation. In both cases a fine grained anisotropic phase forms initially at the crystallization temperature and 25 psig. In pyrolyzed material mesophase formation under N/sub 2/ is a pressure dependent transformation.