Study on the Relationship Between Optical Microstructure and Properties of Mesophase Coke

ABSTRACT As a functional artificial carbon material, mesophase coke has shown notable potential in various fields (particularly in energy storage and metal smelting) due to its outstanding properties. To achieve high‐value utilization of mesophase coke in energy transition, 20 green cokes with distinct properties and structures were selected as raw materials and calcined to get mesophase coke. A series of properties were characterized and quantified. Meanwhile, the structure–activity relationship between optical microstructure and mesophase coke properties was established by linear fitting. In fact, mosaic and leaflet structures significantly influenced the disorder degree of mesophase coke, the former exhibiting a more pronounced effect than the latter. The total content of them showed strong correlations with micro‐strength intensity and amorphous carbon content. In contrast, the fibrous structure contributed to structural regularity. The change of its content directly affected the true density and graphite microcrystal content. Moreover, fibrous and leaflet structures exhibited lower reactivity with oxygen. The combined content of them showed a negative correlation with the oxidation (combustion) reaction rate. Among these cokes, ZHC was most special. Its optical structure exhibited an extreme distribution, the mosaic structure content reached 97.1%, and OTI was only 128. It showed the highest disorder degree, which marked it as a potential hard carbon precursor. This work provides the theoretical and experimental foundations for the high‐value utilization of mesophase coke.