Fabrication and electrocatalytic application of functionalized nanoporous carbon material with different transition metal oxides

Abstract In the work presented here, an attempt is made to study the effect of functionalization with different transition metal oxides on the mesostructural properties as well as electrochemical behavior of Pt/nanoporous carbon supports. In this respect, the functionalized samples have been synthesized by using CMK-3 and metallocene as transition metal sources. The platinum catalysts (5 wt% Pt) obtained through a conventional wet impregnation method. All the materials have been characterized by XRD (low and high), N 2 adsorption–desorption isotherms, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution field emission scanning electron, EDX mapping images and cyclic voltammetry (CV) and rotating disk electrode (RDE) techniques. The results showed that the mesostructural order has been destroyed by functionalization of CMK-3 with CoO, whereas it is not that much affected in NiO and CuO functionalized samples. EDX image mapping exhibited the good and uniform dispersion of functionalizing elements (Ni, Cu, Fe and Co), Pt in the carbon supports. Moreover, XRD studies revealed the formation of smaller platinum crystallite sizes in NiO and CuO functionalized samples in relative to other functionalized supports. Electrochemical measurements were performed using CV and RDE method. Kinetic analysis revealed an activity increases in the following order: CMK-3-NiO-Pt > CMK-3-CuO-Pt > CMK-3-CoO-Pt > CMK-3-Fe 2 O 3 -Pt which is showing of simultaneous effect of surface area and surface reactivity parameters.