Preferred orientation of crystallite in carbons heat-treated under high pressure

A soft carbon and a hard carbon which were prepared from Polyvinylchloride and phenolformaldehyde resin, respectively, both by carbonizing to about 700°C, were obtained as sintered cakes by heat-treatment up to about 1800°C under the quasihydrostatic pressure of 5 kbar. Preferred orientation of crystallites relative to the compressing direction in these cakes was determined by X-ray difraction technique by using the (004) or (002) diffraction line. The soft carbon showed remarkable preferred orientation of crystallites, but the degree of orientation was dependent only a little on heat-treatment temperature (HTT). At 1200°C under 5 kbar, the hard carbon gave a sintered cake which had no appreciably preferred orientation. The degree of preferred orientation of crystallites in the cake of the hard carbon greatly increased with the increase in HTT. The difference in the dependence of preferred orientation of crystallites in the soft and hard carbons on HTT was interpreted by referring to the texture of the original carbons.