Highly stable, reactive and ultrapure nanoporous metallic films

Abstract

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.