Nanoporous Ni and Ni-Cu Fabricated by Dealloying

Metallic nanoporous architecture can be spontaneously attained by dealloying of a binary alloy. The nanoporous architecture can be often fabricated in noble metals such as Au and Pt. In this study, nanoporous Ni, Ni-Cu are fabricated by dealloying rolled Ni-Mn and Cu-Ni-Mn alloys, respectively. Unlike conventional Raney nickel composed of brittle Ni-Al or Cu-Al intermetallic compounds, the initial alloys had good workability probably because of their fcc crystal structures. After the electrolysis of the alloys in (NH4)2SO4 aqueous solution, nanoporous architectures of Ni and Ni-Cu with pore and ligament sizes of 10–20 nm were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction analyses suggested that Ni and Cu atoms form a homogeneous solid solution in the Ni-Cu nanoporous architecture. The ligament sizes of nanoporous Ni and Ni-Cu were smaller than that of nanoporous Cu, reflecting the difference between diffusivities of Ni and Cu at solid/electrolyte interface. Ni can reduce the pore and ligament sizes of resulting nanoporous architecture when added to initial Cu-Mn alloys.