A commercial coal tar pitch was thermally treated at 430degreesC for 4 h and then submitted to hot filtration in order to separate the isotropic phase from the mesophase developed during the treatment. Each phase was then oxidatively stabilized in order to preserve its structure during carbonization and then carbonized at temperatures ranging from 700 to 1000degreesC. The effect of the microstructure, particle morphology and chemical composition of the carbons and also the influence of their carbonization temperature on the electrochemical behaviour as electrode materials in lithium cells were studied. Galvanostatic cycling of lithium test cells using the carbon materials as positive electrodes showed the improvement of the electrochemical performance in both isotropic and anisotropic phases by stabilization with air previous to carbonization. More subtle differences between isotropic and anisotropic samples were evidenced and interpreted in terms of their textural properties. Moreover, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been demonstrated to be an interesting technique to elucidate the changes occurred in the electrode interfaces when these coal tar pitch based carbons are cycled. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.