II International Symposium on Carbon for Catalysis ABSTRACTS

PP-I-43
A NEW ELECTROCATALYST SUPPORT FOR DIRECT METHANOL FUEL CELLS
Tang Sh. 1 , Sun G. 1 , Qi J. 1 , Sun Sh. 1 , Xin Q. 1 , Zhou B. 1,2 , Chen De 3
1
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
2 Headwaters NanoKinetix Inc., 1501 New York Ave., Lawrenceville NJ 08648, USA
3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
7491-Trondheim, Norway
e-mail: shuihuatang@dicp.ac.cn
Research on carbon supports for electrocatalysts has been stimulated by intense interest in
direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) which have recently been considered as one of the most
potentially suitable power sources for stationary and portable applications because of their
high power density at moderate temperature and their compact design. A desirable
electrocatalyst support in fuel cells should possess high surface area, high electric
conductivity and suitable pore size to assist electron, proton and mass transfer. Although
Vulcan XC-72R appears to be the most commonly used carbon for its compromise of a
reasonable surface area and a small amount of micropores, many new nano-sized carbon
materials such as single-walled carbon nanotubes, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs),
carbon nanobeads, carbon nanofibers, carbon nanohorns (CNHs), carbon nanocoils (CNCs),
hollow carbon nanoparticles, and ordered mesoporous carbon have been investigated recently,
among which CNHs and CNCs-supported electrocatalyst exhibited much higher performance
with respect to XC-72R. The performance enhancement was attributed to unique properties
and morphology of CNHs and CNCs.
A new carbon nanomaterial (NCM) with high surface area, high degree of graphitization, and
suitable pore size was synthesized in our laboratory by homogeneous catalytic reaction.
Resorcinol and formaldehyde containing silica gel and iron nitrate (or cobalt, nickel salts)
were cured homogeneously in a weak basic medium by adding concentrated ammonia
solution. The process of synthesis of NCM is simple, easy to operate and scale-up. The
techniques of nitrogen adsorption, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction
were employed to characterize the physiochemical properties and morphology of the new
carbon material. The result of nitrogen adsorption showed that the new carbon material
possessed relatively high surface area of more than 200 m 2 /g and large size pores, and the
TEM image and XRD patterns demonstrated it owned high degree of graphitic characteristics.
204