Chemical method to create high stability heterogeneous carbon-bonded materials

A method of generating a heterogeneous carbon-bonded material comprising:

• heating a carbonaceous material in an atmosphere comprising oxygen to a temperature of at least 250° C. for a time sufficient to generate chemisorption of oxygen on the carbonaceous material, where carbon comprises at least 50 weight percent of the carbonaceous material and where the carbonaceous material comprises a carbon support and has a specific surface area of at least 20 m2/gram, thereby generating an activated material;
• generating a mixture comprising an aqueous precursor solution and the activated material, where the aqueous precursor solution comprises water as a solvent and a material precursor and a chemical agent as solutes, and where the material precursor comprises a metal, and where the chemical agent produces a reducing gas upon thermal decomposition, where the reducing gas removes surface groups from a surface of the activated material to expose metal nucleation sites on the surface that are exposed to the precursor solution due to hydrophilic conditions at carbon sites of the carbonaceous material, and where the reducing gas comprises at least one of CO, Hx, NHx, or mixtures thereof, where x is greater than or equal to 1, and where a decomposition temperature of the chemical agent and a decomposition temperature of the metal precursor is from about 400° C. to about 1200° C.;
• evaporating some portion of the solvent within the precursor solution by heating the mixture to a first temperature in an inert atmosphere, where the first temperature is greater than 100° C. and less than a decomposition temperature of the material precursor and less than a decomposition temperature of the chemical agent, thereby generating a precursor mix;
• generating a reactive gas and a metal by heating the precursor mix to a second temperature in an unreactive atmosphere, where the second temperature is greater than the decomposition temperature of the chemical agent, greater than the decomposition temperature of the material precursor, and less than a combustion temperature of the carbonaceous material;
• adjusting an amount of the material precursor, an amount of the chemical agent, an amount of the solvent, and the specific surface area of the carbonaceous material to minimize a mean diameter of particles of the metal from the material precursor to a mean diameter of less than 5 nm;
• and
• contacting the reactive gas and the activated material to form the heterogeneous carbon-bonded material that comprises the particles of the metal having the mean diameter of less than 5 nm, where the heterogeneous carbon-bonded material comprises carbon from the carbonaceous material and the particles of the metal that are directly bonded at the metal nucleation sites.