Synthesis of Mesoporous Fullerene and its Platinum Composite: A Catalyst for PEMFc

One pot synthetic technique was used to synthesize mesoporous fullerene using highly ordered mesoporous template such as KIT6-150 and SBA-15-150. Highly ordered porous fullerene with cross linkage between the fullerene molecules was obtained from these two silica templates. This type of highly ordered and high surface area mesoporous fullerence with platinum support was used as catalyst to study anodic performance in sulphuric acid medium. Finally, it was used to test its catalytic activity for electrochemical methanol oxidation. Platinum was impregnated inside mesoporous fullerene to study anodic performance and methanol oxidation. Mesoporous Fullerene-Pt nano-composite showed quite an unusual electrochemical property for electro oxidation of methanol and good anodic performance in acidic electrolyte. The anodic performance of mesofullerene-pt composite was much better than the commercially available carbon black. This is a report mentioning the synthetic strategy to prepare mesofullerene and its platinum composite. Pt-mesofullerene composite and mesofullerene alone were used separately as electrode material to study their electrochemical performance. Pt- supported mesofullerene is a potential catalyst for fuel cell application. (C) 2012 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/2.003206jes]