Support materials, for fuel cells

Despite the advantages offered by CNTs and CNFs, there are still many obstacles (cost, synthesis methods) to overcome to allow large-scale production. Another type of catalyst support material is mesoporous carbon that provides high surface area and conductivity [100, 141]. It can be classified into ordered (OMC) and disordered (DOMC) mesoporous carbon [100], OMCs have been extensively used as catalyst support materials for fuel cells [140,142-146], The large surface area and 3D connected monodis-persed mesospheres facilitate diffusion of the reactants, making them very attractive materials as catalyst supports [100]. 

Carbon black is the traditional support material for fuel cell cafalysfs for fhe following reasons ... 

Yumura T, Kimura K, Kobayashi H, Tanaka R, Okumura N, Yamabe T (2009) The use of nanometer-sized hydrographene species for support material for fuel cell electrode catalysts a theoretical proposal. Phys Chem Chem Phys 11(37) 8275-8284... 

A Study on the Role of Carbon Support Materials for Fuel-Cell Catalysts... 

Ettingshausen F, Weidner A, Zils S, Wolz A, Suflher J, Michel M, Roth C (2009) Alternative support materials for fuel cell catalysts. ECS Trans 25(1) 1883-1892... 

S. ZUs, P. Bleith, F. Ettingshausen,]. Suffner, A. Wolz, M. Michel, C. Roth, Alternative support materials and the role of the support morphology for the electrode structure, ICCE 19 in Shanghai (2011) session organized by P. Bele on Novel Catalysts and Support Materials for Fuel Cells. 

Mesoporous Carbon as Support Materials for Fuel Cells... 

The synthesis of OMC involves the use of ordered mesoporous silica (OMS) template with a specific pore topology [7]. As illustrated in Figure 3.1, the appropriate carbon precursor (carbon sources such as sucrose, furfuryl alcohol, acetylene gas, pyrrole, and acrylonitrile) is fed into the pores of the template via the infiltration approach, followed by its carbonization to achieve the siUca-carbon composite and template removal in ethanol-water solution of HF or NaOH to obtain the mesoporous carbon replica. The structure of the as-obtained OMC strongly depends on the structure of the used template. Chang et al. [7] have reviewed the synthesis of OMC as support materials for fuel cell applications. The rod- and tube-type mesoporous carbon structures can be realized by filling carbon precursors in the template pores and coating carbon precursors as a thin film on the pore walls of the template, respectively. In order to get the well-defined structure of OMC, the template should have three-dimensional interconnected pore structure. On the other hand, the carbonization of the carbon precursors should be confined exclusively within the mesopores of the ordered mesoporous silica templates with sufficient carbon precursor filling therefore, before the pyrolysis process, the carbon soiu-ce should be converted to a cross-linked polymer induced by the use of the acid polymerization catalysts [5,7]. 

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