A facile synthesis of highly compacted, molybdenum-embedded, ordered, mesoporous, protective carbon films of graphitic structure

• Mo-embedded carbon films were obtained by multi-component co-assembly strategy.
• The presence of Mo can improve the graphitization degree of carbon films.
• The mesoporous composite films exhibited favorable electric conductivity and corrosion resistance.

High electric conductivity and good corrosion resistance are critical in the development of protective coating of stainless steel. We demonstrate that molybdenum oxide nanoparticles encapsulated within ordered mesoporous carbon matrix can efficiently improve the graphitization degree and compactness of carbon film. After the 304 stainless steel was coated with molybdenum-embedded ordered mesoporous carbon film, its corrosion current densities decrease to 0.027 μA cm−2 and 0.0029 μA cm−2 in 0.5 mol L−1 H2SO4 or 0.1 mol L−1 HCl, respectively. The results suggest that Mo-embedded ordered mesoporous carbon film-coated 304 stainless steel is a promising candidate for protective coating of bipolar plates.

The carbon materials obtain highly ordered 2D hexagonal mesoporous arrays with 1D channel and the metal compositions are homogeneously dispersed in carbon matrix.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide