A novel dealloying strategy for fabricating nanoporous Ag via ζ′-AgGa alloy

A mild strategy for fabricating nanoporous silver (np-Ag) pieces was reported via preparation of Ag–Ga alloys in relatively low temperature and subsequent electrochemical dealloying in nitric acid (HNO3) aqueous solution. After selectively etching Ga out of the Ag–Ga alloy, a typical three-dimensional (3D) bicontinuous nanoporous structure with a pore size of ∼67.21–159.33 nm was observed. A series of studies have shown that the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) results in minimum pore size. The coarsen exponent (n) is 1.61, and the activation energy was calculated to be 27.04 kJ mol−1. The ζ'-AgGa alloy prepared at low temperature can be used as the precursor for the preparation of fine np-Ags, and this method provides a new strategy for the industrial production of dealloyed np-Ag.