Crude oil is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic species. Pitch is the residue that is left after refining crude oil under vacuum and high temperatures. It is generally considered waste and is the major component of road tar. Pitch contains thousands of aromatic hydrocarbons with 3 to 8 fused ring systems, which is also known as carbon mesophase. The carbonaceous pitches containing asphaltene are useful in the formation of a variety of carbon artifacts due to their high carbon-to-hydrogen ratio. There is a need for additional methods and resulting compositions that can use pitch to generate useful asphaltene and asphaltene derivatives.