Effect of Particle Orientation and Porosity on Thermal Conductivity of Petroleum Pitch Polymer-Based Carbon Molded Body

The present study was conducted to investigate changes in the thermal conductivity of petroleum pitch-based carbon molded bodies prepared by anisotropic (uniaxial) molding under different molding pressures. The carbon molded bodies were prepared using needle coke and petroleum-based binder pitch polymers (softening point: 150 ℃). Green blocks prepared under high molding pressure showed a higher particle orientation value up to 16.4 μm. Graphite blocks, prepared by graphitizing the green blocks at 2800 ℃ showed a similar trend. The pores in the carbon molded body were filled with low boiling point substances, generated by the thermal treatment of the binder pitch polymer or air that could not be discharged during the molding procedure. Therefore, when phonons encountered a pore, phonon scattering, rather than phonon transport, occurred, and thus the heat transport from the hot zone to a cold zone became slow. As a result, although the particle orientation was a little higher in the B_10-G sample than in the B_20-G sample (in the error range), the thermal conductivity was higher in the B_20-G sample, which may be because the B_10-G sample had a higher porosity than the B_20-G sample.