Processes and compositions for carbon foams and materials

A process for producing a carbon foam material, the process comprising:

• a first heating step comprising heating a pitch material at a temperature of about 400° C. to about 700° C. under at a pressure of 0.5 atm to about 1.2 atm for about 4 hours to about 24 hours in a non-oxidizing atmosphere, thereby forming a foaming pitch material;
• grinding the foaming pitch material to a particle size of about 10 mesh to about 400 mesh, thereby forming foaming pitch particles;
• arranging the foaming pitch particles in a mold;
• and
• a second heating step comprising heating the mold at a temperature of greater than about 450° C. to about 750° C. at a pressure of about 0.5 atm to about 1.5 atm for about 0.25 hours to about 12 hours in a non-oxidizing atmosphere, thereby forming a carbon foam material;
• wherein the arranging the foaming pitch particles comprises arranging foaming pitch particles having a plurality of sizes in layers;
• wherein a first layer comprises foaming pitch particles having a first foaming pitch particle size;
• wherein a second layer comprises foaming pitch particles having a second foaming pitch particle size;
• and wherein the first foaming pitch particle size is smaller than the second foaming pitch particle size.