Abstract: Mesophase pitch-based carbon foams were prepared from aromatics rich FCC slurry oil. The effect of carbonization temperature (800—1 400 ℃) on the microstructure, surface properties, microcrystal structure and shape of the prepared carbon foams was studied using a box resistance furnace under air diluted with 1 L/min nitrogen conditions. Carbon foam samples prior and post to carbonization were characterized by SEM, FT-IR and XRD techniques. Results showed that there were large amount of functional groups on the surface of the mesophase pitch carbon foam, such as C-H, C=O and COO- groups. After carbonization, the content of COO- and C-H groups reduced greatly, meanwhile, the content of O-H group increased. However, when carbonization temperature exceeded 1 100 ℃, the content of such functional groups on the surface of carbon foam was basically unchanged. With the increase of carbonization temperature, the shape and microcrystal structure of the carbon foams were improved, and the interlayer spacing of the microcrystal became regularly, which was helpful to form graphite microcrystal structure. On the whole, the optimum carbonization temperature was selected as 1 100 ℃，carbonizing under such temperature, good shape of carbon foam sample with pore size in the range of 150—300 μm could be obtained and its microcrystal structure parameters were as follows: La=2.5 nm, Lc=2.31 nm, N=10 and d002=0.347 6 nm.