Performance improvement of activated nanoporous carbon supported gold catalyst as an anode for direct borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cells

Activated nanoporous carbon (A-NPC) has been synthesized via KOH activation of a nanoporous carbon (NPC) prepared using a template metal-organic framework-5 (MOF-5), and it is firstly used as an anode electrocatalyst carrier of Au nanoparticles in borohydride-hydrogen peroxide fuel cells (DBHFCs). The samples are characterized by N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronopotentiometry (CP), chronoamperometry and fuel cell tests. It has been found that the A-NPC achieves a surface area up to 2296 m(2) g(-1) and a pore volume of 1.59 cm(3) g(-1). The mean particle size of Au crystallites dispersed uniformly on the surface of the A-NPC carrier is only 2.9 nm. Besides, the peak current density for direct borohydride oxidation of the Au/A-NPC (49.1 mA cm(-2)) is 13.6% higher than that of the untreated NPC supported Au (43.2 mA cm(-2)), and 63.1% higher than that of commercial Vulcan XC-72R supported Au (30.1 mA cm(-2)). The DBHFC using the Au/A-NPC as anode electrocatalyst can obtain a maximum power density of 48.2 mW cm(-2) at 25 degrees C.