Two isotropic pitches were prepared by air blowing and nitrogen distillation methods using ethylene tar (ET) as a raw material. The corresponding carbon fibers were obtained through conventional melt spinning, stabilization, and carbonization. The structures and properties of the resultant pitches and fibers were characterized, and their differences were examined. The results showed that the introduction of oxygen by the air blowing method could quickly increase the yield and the softening point of the pitch. Moreover, the air-blown pitch (ABP) was composed of aromatic molecules with linear methylene chains, while the nitrogen-distilled pitch (NDP) mainly contained polycondensed aromatic rings. This is because the oxygen-containing functional groups in the ABP could impede ordered stack of pitch molecules and led to a methylene bridge structure instead of an aromatic condensed structure as in the NDP. Meanwhile, the spinnability of the ABP did not decrease even though it contained 2.31 wt % oxygen. In contrast, the ABP had narrower molecular weight distribution, which contributed to better stabilization properties and higher tensile strength of the carbon fiber. The tensile strength of carbon fibers from the ABP reached 860 MPa with fiber diameter of about 10 μm, which was higher than the tensile strength of 640 MPa for the NDP-derived carbon fibers.

The proper hydrogenation of Hyper-coal (HPC) using 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline (THQ) was able to decrease the oxygen content and adjust the molecular structure of HPC for preparing the spinnable pitch with high softening point (SP). The spinnable pitch prepared from the THQ-soluble (QS) fraction of HPC as a precursor consisted of more naphthenic carbon groups than that prepared from the 1-methylnaphthalene (1-MN) soluble (MNS) fraction of HPC. The HPC-QS derived spinnable pitch showed excellent spinning performance even though the SP of 260 °C, and the tensile strength of the resultant carbon fiber was increased to 1350 MPa with a diameter around 8 µm under the only carbonization temperature of at 800 °C for 5 min.