煤沥青基功能碳材料的研究现状及前景

我国煤沥青资源丰富,但深加工技术落后,产品附加值低,实现煤沥青高附加值利用是亟待解决的重大课题。本文介绍了以煤沥青为原料合成高性能功能碳材料的主要技术,重点阐述了以煤沥青为原料制备中间相沥青、多孔碳材料、碳纤维、二维纳米碳材料及碳基复合材料的研究进展。分析表明,高芳香性和高缩合度分子结构所引起的强π-π相互作用是阻碍煤沥青基高性能功能碳材料设计合成的瓶颈问题。通过催化聚合、氧化、共热解等技术手段可有效改善煤沥青分子结构及其物理、化学性质。结合模板复制、物理/化学活化、界面诱导以及催化石墨化等技术可实现多种功能性碳材料结构设计与表面化学性质调控。发展煤沥青分子结构调控新技术作为改善煤沥青基碳材料性能的重要策略,需要系统深入研究。

Progress in synthesis and applications of functional carbon materials from coal tar pitch

Coal tar pitch is abundant as a byproduct of coke production in iron-steel industry in China. However,the traditional methods cannot efficiently convert coal tar pitch into value-added products and how to make effective use of coal tar pitch remains a big challenge. This review has summarized several techniques for further processing of coal tar pitch,with a focus on the synthesis and applications of high performance functional materials including mesophase pitch, porous carbons,carbon fibers,two dimensional nano-sized carbon materials and carbon based composites. This review highlights that the strong π-π interactions between highly condensed polycyclic aromatic molecules in coal tar pitch is the bottle-neck that hinders the efficient conversion of coal tar pitch into functional carbon materials with tuned structure and properties. The molecular structure and properties of coal tar pitch can be improved through catalytic condensation,oxidization or co-pyrolysis. With coal tar pitch as precursor,methods including templating, physical/chemical activation, surface induction and catalytic graphitization have been developed for the controlled synthesis of high performance carbon materials. Novel methods that can tune the molecular structure of coal tar pitch are highly demanded to improve the performance of coal tar pitch based carbon materials and related researches should be intensified.