Preparation of Nanoporous Carbon/Graphene Composites and Its Application in Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

Nanoporous carbon/graphene composites (NCGC) are synthesized via one-step hydrothermal approach combining carbonization, where phenol and formaldehyde are used as carbon sources and triblock copolymers F127 as template. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nitrogen adsorption measurements show that the synthesized NCGC samples possess high surface area over 400 m2.g-1 and mesoporous structures with interconnected pores. The electrochemical studies demonstrate that Pt catalyst with NCGC as support exhibits better eletrocatalytic activity for methanol oxidation as compared to the catalyst taking widely-used VulcanXC-72 as support. In addition, the potential formation mechanism of NCGC is discussed.