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Well-tailored spherical carbon capsules with a hollow macroporous core of ca. 280 nm and a ca. 40 nm thick mesoporous shell were synthesized and explored for the first time as cathode catalyst support in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). The unique structural characteristics of hollow core/mesoporous shell (HCMS) carbon including high specific surface area, large pore volume, uniform particle size, and well-developed three-dimensionally interconnected bimodal porosity make it an ideal candidate as catalyst support for low-temperature fuel cells. Considerable improvements in electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen reduction reactions and in fuel cell performance have been achieved by Pt(20 wt %) supported on the HCMS carbon (HCMSC) when compared with its counterpart, Pt supported on commonly used commercially available catalyst support carbon black Vulcan XC-72 (VC), suggesting that the HCMSC is an excellent and much more efficient cathode catalyst support than VC for PEMFC application.
Fang et al. (Sat,) studied this question.