Chemical Vapor Deposition of Hollow Graphitic Spheres for Improved Electrochemical Durability

The wet-chemical synthesis of hollow graphitic spheres, a highly defined model catalyst support for electrocatalytic processes, is laborious and not scalable, which hampers potential applications. Here, we present insights into the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) ferrocene as simple, scalable method to synthesize spheres (HGScvd). During CVD process, iron carbon are embedded in pores mesoporous silica template. In subsequent annealing step, facilitates ordered graphite structures. We found that applied temperature treatment allows controlling degree graphitization textural properties HGScvd. Further, demonstrate platinum loaded on HGScvd significantly more stable during electrochemical degradation protocols than catalysts based commercial high surface area carbons. established process HGS therefore removes one obstacle broader application.