(135g) A Novel Method for the Synthesis of Graphitized Ordered Mesoporous Carbon (OMC) and Its Application for PEMFC

Ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) is considered as a promising catalyst support because of its highly porous structure and large surface area with hexagonal mesopores. However, in order to use OMC as Pt electrocatalyst support, walls of OMC should be graphitized in order to obtain required electrical conductivity. The aim of this research is to improve the electrical conductivity of OMC by employing three different metals including Ni, Co and Fe as graphitization catalysts. Metal modified OMCs (termed as mOMC) have been synthesized using 10%Ni-SBA-15, 10%Co-SBA-15 and 10%Fe-SBA-15 as sacrificial hard template, sucrose as the source of carbon and H₂SO₄ as catalyst with 900 °C carbonization temperature. The metal doped SBA-15 were synthesized in-house using one-step synthesis procedure. mOMCs were characterized using N₂ adsorption-desorption analysis (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA-DSC). Subsequently, 20 wt%Pt/mOMC electrocatalysts were prepared using incipient wetness impregnation method and tested for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Materials exhibited pores sizes and specific surface area in the range of 3.9-4.1 nm and 1400-1500 m²/g, depending upon the type of metal. Ordered structures of the synthesized materials were confirmed from XRD and TEM images. TGA-DSC analysis confirmed the good stability of these graphitized OMC samples. The results from the above studies will be presented.