Soybean-derived mesoporous carbon as an effective catalyst support for electrooxidation of methanol

In this work, a low cost and nitrogen-containing carbon (CS) with mesoporous structure and high surface area is synthesized by carbonizing soybean. It is found that the prepared CS has excellent textural properties such as high specific surface areas and large pore diameters. TEM images show that the Pt nano-sized dendrites are well formed on the surface of CS. Compared to Pt supported on Vulcan carbon XC-72, electrochemical results show that Pt supported on CS possesses a higher electrocatalytic activity and better durability in methanol oxidation reaction, which are mainly attributed to the support effect of CS resulting in the unique morphology of Pt particles and high content of Pt(0). These results indicate that CS has great potential as a high-performance catalyst support for fuel cell electrocatalysis. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.