Pitch-based carbon fiber tows were prepared from naphtha cracking bottom oil by reforming and carbonization. The relationship between exothermic heat and carbon contents of the fiber was investigated by changing the carbonization conditions. The carbon contents and the crystallinities of isotropic pitch-based carbon fibers were 86.8~93.8 wt% and 33.7~40.1%, respectively, which were linearly proportional to the increase of carbonization temperature from 700 to 1000℃. The exothermic heat (temperature increase) of fiber tows was measured in a short time, which was also linearly proportional to the increase of carbon contents due to the increase of crystallinity, even though the crystallinity was low. Therefore, the carbon contents or carbonization degree of fibers can rapidly and indirectly be estimated by measuring the surface temperature increase of fibers.

Naphtha Cracking Bottom (NCB) oil was heat reformed at various reforming temperature and time, and the volatile extracts were characterized including yields, molecular weight distributions, and representative compounds. The yield of extract increased as the increase of reforming temperature (360~420℃) and time (1~4 hr). Molecular weight of the as-received NCB oil was under 200, and those of extracts were distributed in the range of 100-250, and far smaller than those of precursor pitches of 380-550. Naphtalene-based compounds were more than 70% in the as-received NCB oil, and most of them were isomers of compounds bonding functional groups, such as methyl (CH3-) and ethyl (C2H5-). When the as-received NCB oil was reformed at 360℃ for 1 hr, the most prominent compound was 1,2-Butadien, 3-phenyl- (24.57%), while naphthalene became main component again as increasing the reforming temperature.