Preparation and characterization of mesophase-pitch-based foam/natural graphite composites

Graphite foams were prepared from the mesophase-pitch with addition of natural graphite and the relationship between properties and structure of these foams was investigated in detail. These graphite foams possessed high specific compressive strength and experimental results show that less microcracks appeared on the cell walls of foam by adding of natural graphite. The specific compressive strength increased from 2.0 to 5.84 MPa/g cm3 with the addition of 30 wt% natural graphite, and the inter layer spacing of graphite foams decreased with the increase of the natural graphite content in the pitch. In addition, the optical micrograph shows that the anisotropic domain size of the foam decreased with the addition of natural graphite and it also affects the compressive strength of the foams.