Reviews in Modern Surface Finishing No.1: Anodic routes to nanoporous materials

Abstract

The formation and application of nanoscale materials is revolutionising many industrial sectors. The unique properties and functionality offered at this length scale are attractive and the demand for new materials and new production routes is high. This challenging field of research incorporates materials science, engineering and advanced characterisation techniques. The range of materials that are produced at the nanoscale is increasing rapidly; this review will focus specifically on the generation of nanoporous materials from anodic electrochemical routes. The method of dealloying as a route to the formation of nanoporous materials in terms of the processing, alteration and potential applications will be discussed. Factors such as alloy composition, electrolyte and applied potential are all seen to be critical factors on the resultant morphology. This method will then be compared with other available electrochemical routes to form nanoporous materials. It is seen that irrespective of the synthesis employed, the manufacturing method plays an important role on the characteristics of the pore formation in terms of the resultant morphologies and the properties they exhibit.

X-ray studies of nanoporous gold: Powder diffraction by large crystals with small holes

“…Nanoscale metal networks made by dealloying are of current interest as model systems for fundamental studies of size and interface effects in the nanosciences [1][2][3]. They are also under consideration as materials basis for technologically relevant functional materials, for instance in actuation [4][5][6][7], sensing [6,[8][9][10][11], energy storage [12,13], microfluidics [14], catalysis [15][16][17][18][19][20][21], or lightweight structural materials [22][23][24][25].…”

Atomic emission spectroelectrochemistry applied to dealloying phenomena: I. The formation and dissolution of residual copper films on stainless steel

“…These mechanisms have been recently reviewed [1]. Considerable research has been devoted to the selective dissolution of binary alloys either from the perspective of corrosion [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] or as a means of preparing porous metals [14], for example as catalyst supports [15]. There have been recent attempts to model the phenomenon [16].…”

Nanoporous Silver with Controllable Optical Properties Formed by Chemical Dealloying in Supercritical CO2

“…Reported conditions for void formation during conventional dealloying include a substantial difference in the standard potential between the constituent elements (Δϕ > 0.1 V), fast surface diffusion of the inert metal, and a minimum starting composition of the selectively removed species, defined as the parting limit . Many studies have been published characterizing and modeling the dealloying process in polar liquid solutions. − The combined effect of surface tension, wetting, solubility, and mass transport on pore structure is difficult to unravel.…”

“…24 Many studies have been published characterizing and modeling the dealloying process in polar liquid solutions. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] The *Corresponding author. E-mail: muscat@erc.arizona.edu.…”