A facile soft-template synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbon/tungsten carbide composites with high surface area for methanol electrooxidation

Ordered 2D hexagonal mesoporous carbon/tungsten carbide (OMC/WC) composite nanomaterials have been successfully synthesized for the first time by the soft-template method with ammonium metagungstate as tungsten precursor and poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) tri-block copolymer (PEO-PPO-PEO) (F127) as a soft-template. With loaded Pt, the Pt@OMC/WC demonstrates better performance than the commercial PtRu@C for methanol electrooxidation in terms of specific mass activity by a factor of 2.4 (per mg Pt) and 3.2 (per mg metal). Its high activity could be attributed not only to the synergetic effect of WC, but also to its highly ordered nanostructure and large surface area for high utilization efficiency of Pt and desirable mass transportation in a porous electrode. This work is expected to provide a feasible approach for the preparation of ordered mesoporous self-supported metal carbides. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved