Whereas carbon is a major catalyst support, namely in pharmaceutical industry, its immobilisation on structured objects has scarcely been studied. This article presents the comparison of two methods aiming at coating ceramic and metallic supports with a carbon layer. The method involving a suspension of black carbon is easy to use but leads to less adherent layers than the method involving the carbonisation of poly(furfuryl alcohol). On the other hand, the former method is the one that allows to prepare more active catalysts for nitrobenzene hydrogenation. Then, the suspension formulation has been improved to enhance the carbon adhesion. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.