Mesoporous Carbons with Controlled Porosity as an Electrocatalytic Support for Methanol Oxidation

Abstract

Mesoporous carbons with high surface area, large pore diameter, and enhanced mesoporosity have been synthesized by a soft colloidal template route with various aniline/cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTABr) ratios and investigated as an electrocatalytic support for methanol oxidation by cyclic voltammetry. The mesoporous carbons loaded with Pt catalysts exhibit two to three times higher mass activity (mA/mg Pt) for methanol oxidation than Vulcan XC 72R carbon loaded with Pt. The enhanced activity is attributed to a better dispersion and utilization of the catalysts, originating from a combination of high surface area and lower percentage of undesirable micropores. Both cyclic voltammetric and chronoamperametric measurements of the Pt-loaded carbon samples indicate that the mesoporous carbon possesses lower hydrophilicity compared to the conventional Vulcan XC 72R carbon. However, the hydrophilicity is found to depend on the aniline/CTABr ratios used during the synthesis of the mesoporous carbon samples.