Ordered mesoporous carbons (OMC) as supports of electrocatalysts for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC): Effect of carbon precursors of OMC on DMFC performances

This paper presents the effect of graphitic character of ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) on the performances of OMC supported catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). Two ONIC samples with hexagonal mesostructure were prepared from phenanthrene and sucrose by nanoreplication method using mesoporous silica as a template. Structural characterizations revealed that both OMCs exhibited large BET surface area and uniform mesopores, while the ONIC synthesized from phenanthrene exhibited lower sheet resistance than the OMC derived from sucrose. The Pt nanoparticles were supported on both OMCs with very high dispersion, as the particle size was estimated under 3 nm despite high metal loading of 60 wt.%. In DMFC single cell test, the ONIC Supported Pt catalysts exhibited much higher performance than the commercial catalyst, which may be attributed to the high surface area and uniform mesopore networks of ONIC. In particular, it was found that the performance of OMC supported catalysts can be significantly enhanced by lowering the resistance of ONIC. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.