Accessible mesoporous carbon aerogel preparation and its application as ultra-low pt support for oxygen reduction reaction with high catalytic activity

Carbon supported Pt and its alloys (Pt/C) are the most practical catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). To further reduce scare Pt content in the Pt/C is of great importance for its widely application. Carbon substrate plays a critical role in decreasing Pt proportion. In this research, accessible pores carbon aerogel is prepared to be support for Pt nanoparticles by sol-gel method. A mild reduction agent H-2 is choose to produce ultra-small Pt nanoparticles with only 1.5 nm diameter. The carbon aerogel could lower Pt to be ultra-low content of 4.2% mass percentage. Ultra-small Pt nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed on the carbon aerogel, which is significant for improving Pt utilization and catalytic performance. The Pt/carbon aerogel, is of high ORR catalytic activity with electrochemical surface area 188 m(2) g(Pt)(-1), mass activity 107 mA mg(Pt)(-1) and low Tafel slope 47.87 mV dec(-1), which could be ascribed to carbon aerogel support with high mesoporous surface area of 500 m(2)/g. Pt/carbon aerogel were comprehensively studied by N-2 adsorption/desorption, SEM, TEM, XPS and XRD to reveal relations between properties and structures. Based on the research results, the Pt/carbon aerogel is a kind of promising low Pt catalyst for ORR.