Coal tar pitch based carbon foam for thermal insulating material

Abstract Coal tar pitch was used as raw material for carbon foam. After oxidized and modified, coal tar pitch can be foamed at an atmospheric foaming pressure. Thus, this kind of carbon foam is easy to produce in large scale with low cost. Importantly, owing to the uniform pore structure, high compressive strength and low thermal conductivity, the resultant carbon foam can be used as thermal insulation material applied in energy saving building. A new approach was provided to resolve the large-scale applications of coal tar pitch.