Template-Oriented Synthesis of Nitrogen-Enriched Porous Carbon Nanowhisker by Hollow TiO₂ Spheres Nanothorns for Methanol Electrooxidation

Boosting the electrocatalytic property of catalyst by controlling the structure and composition is extremely important for fuel cells commercialization. We present herein a facile template-oriented strategy to controllably fabricate one-dimensional (1D) nitrogen-enriched hierarchical porous carbon nanowhisker (N-HPCN-T, T = 700, 800, and 900) through an efficient hollow TiO2 (H-TiO2) spheres nanothorns (H-TiO2/N-HPCN-T). This strategy not only effectively provides an interconnected 3D porous architecture (hollow micro/dual-meso-porous and 1D nanowhisker) but also significantly improves the specific surface area and electrical conductivity of TiO2 materials. The growth mechanism of polyaniline nanowhisker and the effect of experimental parameters have been systematically studied, and then a “template-oriented mechanism” for the nanowhisker growth is proposed. Pt nanoparticles are deposited on H-TiO2/N-HPCN-T supports using a microwave-assisted polyol process (Pt/H-TiO2@N-HPCN-T). Because of their unique structural features and superior composition advantages, the resulting Pt/H-TiO2@N-HPCN-800 electrocatalyst exhibits desirable electrocatalytic performance toward methanol electrooxidation, including high catalytic activity, outstanding stability and superior poison tolerance. Our findings open up new possibility to design advanced 1D hierarchical carbon support, which is conducive to solve the current bottlenecks of fuel cell technologies.