Mass Production of Graphene via an in Situ Self-Generating Template Route and Its Promoted Activity as Electrocatalytic Support for Methanol Electroxidization

A novel in situ self-generating template route is developed for preparing the crystalline carbon composed of single-layer, few-layer, and multilayer graphene based on coordination and the carburization effect of Fe2+ ions in polyacrylic weak-acid cation-exchanged resin (AC resin). The products could be obtained in high-throughput with good crystalline structure. Results showed that the introduction of plentiful Fe2+ into the AC resin framework is crucial to obtain the graphene structure. Specifically, the graphene could not be obtained in the case of either replacing Fe2+ with Fe3+, Co2+, Ni2+ or decreasing the exchange amount of Fe2+ ions. Furthermore, as-prepared graphene could act as an excellent support for Pt catalyst in a direct methanol fuel cell, as demonstrated by higher current and better stability of Pt/graphene catalyst. A rational mechanism of the formation of graphene is proposed on the basic of a series of the experiments.