Nanoporous metals possess unique properties attributed to their high surface area and interconnected nanoscale ligaments. They are mostly fabricated by wet synthetic methods involving solution-based dealloying processes whose purity is compromised by residual amounts of the less noble metal. Here, we demonstrate a novel dry synthesis method to produce nanoporous metals, which is based on the plasma treatment of metal nanoparticles formed by physical vapor deposition. Our approach is general and can be applied to many metals including non-noble ones. The resultant nanoporous metallic films are impurity-free and possess highly curved ligaments and nanopores. The metal films are remarkably robust with many catalytically active sites, which is highly promising for electrocatalytic applications.
@article{arxiv.2111.05608,
title = {Highly stable, reactive and ultrapure nanoporous metallic films},
author = {Hyunah Kwon and Hannah-Noa Barad and Alex Ricardo Silva Olaya and Mariana Alarcon-Correa and Kersten Hahn and Gunther Richter and Gunther Wittstock and Peer Fischer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.05608},
year = {2022}
}