Methanol oxidation on platinum-ruthenium nanoparticles supported on well defined mesoporous carbons

Abstract

Due to the fantastic features of ordered mesoporous carbons (OMC), e.g., uniform pore structure, tunable pore size, high surface area and large pore volume, OMC have been extensively studied in the field of catalysis, separation, adsorption, and even the fabrication of energy storage device and supports in fuel cells. A mesoporous carbon structure was template-synthesized from silica nanoparticles with internal M41S type mesopores. There were larger mesopores connecting the cellular domains. These larger mesopores were formed in the interparticle voids created during carbonization. The dual porosity network structure had a high surface area and large pore volume. When loaded with Pt-Ru nanoparticles, the PtRu/carbon became a good electrocatalyst and gave higher activity for methanol oxidation compared to a commercial catalyst. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting (Salt Lake, UT 11/4-9/2007).