II International Symposium on Carbon for Catalysis ABSTRACTS

KL-5
nanostructured carbons offer several additional aspects which make them highly interesting to
develop advanced electrocatalysts: (i) the unique electrical properties of these materials which
limit the charge of the supported metal particles, (ii) the improved mass-transfer and threephase
boundary due to the presence of an ordered structure, (iii) the possibility of preferential
crystallographic orientation of the supported metal nanoparticles, (iv) the confinement effect
inside nanotubes, (v) the possibility of oxide/carbon combination to improve the
performances and/or reduce sensitivity to poisoning, and (vi) the possibility to develop
hierarchically-organized structures (on a nano-meso-micro scale).
This lecture will discuss initially these general aspects with a short overview of the
research trends in this attractive area. Then, the discussion will be focused on two specific
cases:
1 the performances of nanostructured carbon in H 2 PEM fuel cells, where the role of threephase
boundary and charging effect on the metal particles will be discussed in particular;
2 the behavior of nanostructured-based electrocatalysts for the conversion of CO 2 to
Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbons at room temperature and pressure, where the role of the
combination between confinement and three-phase boundary will be discussed. This
anode is part of a photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) device aimed, in a longer term perspective,
to realize the conversion of CO 2 to fuel using solar energy.
The final part of the lecture will discuss some of the perspectives for research in this area, and
also the relevance for the development of novel catalysts based on nanostructured carbon.
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