Abstract
In this thesis, the co-incorporation of metal and polypyrrole into mesoporous silica was studied. Mesoporous silica possesses high surface area and ordered pore structure that enables the applications in catalysis, separation and so on. The employment of vapor-phase oxidative polymerization of PPY as carbon precursor possesses the stoichiometric relationship enables the rational control of carbon loading. In part I, the evolution of the chemical environment of iron during the pyrolysis process was investigated by X-ray absorption spectroscopy. In part II, extending the work of part I, the corporation of electrocatalyst, i.e. PtRu, and PPY is investigated. PtRu is considered the best anode catalyst toward the poison of CO. Several PPY/PtRu/SBA-15 composites are designed and performed for the anode materials of DMFC. The preliminary result from XAS suggests that the alloy structure of PtRu particles could be controlled as core-shell or separate particles by tuning the experimental parameters. The further electrochemical analysis is in progress.