@article{e0a9b398a03f47efabdfbd0ab4c59562,
title = "Petroleum pitch: Exploring a 50-year structure puzzle with real-space molecular imaging",
abstract = "Petroleum pitch has played a significant role in carbon science as a key abundant resource for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in making various higher value carbon materials. Despite many detailed studies using advanced characterization techniques over 50 years, the exact nature of the molecular structures of petroleum M-50 pitch and their mesophase products remains unclear, due to the molecular diversity and the low solubility of this material. In this study, we applied real-space single molecule imaging non-contact atomic force microscopy to obtain exact structures of individual molecules, and compared the results from other characterization techniques to validate some of the previously hypothesized average structures. We identified a diverse slate of largely catacondensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with short alkyl chains, such as methyl and methylene groups. Furthermore, both single core and multi-core structures have been observed, in contrast to previous assertions that only one type would be present. The presence of these structures enables a mechanistic rationalization for their formation and allows potential mechanisms for the thermal conversion of pitch into larger bonding networks to be postulated.",
author = "Pengcheng Chen and Metz, {Jordan N.} and Mennito, {Anthony S.} and Shamel Merchant and Smith, {Stuart E.} and Michael Siskin and Rucker, {Steven P.} and Dankworth, {David C.} and Kushnerick, {J. Douglas} and Nan Yao and Yunlong Zhang",
note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to thank Thomas R. Fredriksen for collecting the FT ICR MS data. Y.Z. would like to acknowledge valuable discussions with Dr. Bruno Schuler of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (CA, USA) and Prof. (emeritus) Murray Gray of University of Alberta (Canada). This work was supported by ExxonMobil through its membership in the Princeton E-filliates Partnership of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. This research made use of Imaging and Analysis Center (IAC) at Princeton University which is supported in part by Princeton Center for Complex Materials, a National Science Foundation (NSF) -MRSEC program ( DMR-1420541 ). Funding Information: The authors would like to thank Thomas R. Fredriksen for collecting the FT ICR MS data. Y.Z. would like to acknowledge valuable discussions with Dr. Bruno Schuler of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (CA, USA) and Prof. (emeritus) Murray Gray of University of Alberta (Canada). This work was supported by ExxonMobil through its membership in the Princeton E-filliates Partnership of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. This research made use of Imaging and Analysis Center (IAC) at Princeton University which is supported in part by Princeton Center for Complex Materials, a National Science Foundation (NSF) -MRSEC program (DMR-1420541). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2020",
month = may,
doi = "10.1016/j.carbon.2020.01.062",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "161",
pages = "456--465",
journal = "Carbon",
issn = "0008-6223",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
}