The influence of ball-milling on improving the performance of mesocarbon microbeads based carbon blocks

► Ball-milling destroyed the spherical shape and reduced the grain size of MCMBs. ► Ball-milling inhibited the void or crack formation in the neck regions of samples. ► High strength (124 MPa) carbon material was prepared from ball-milled MCMBs. ► Electric resistivity decreased and d002 increased with prolonging ball-milling time.