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

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]