Effects of pre-oxidation conditions on microstructure evolution and hydrogen evolution reaction performance of nano-porous Ag

A novel strategy was developed to fabricate nano-porous silver (NPS) with a threedimensional bi-continuous open porous structure. A high temperature oxidation (HTO) craft and a strong oxidant-assisted low-temperature oxidation method were used to tune the dealloying of AgXCu(1-X) ribbons. The NPS fabricated from the Ag15Cu85 ribbon by the HTO pretreatment exhibited a ligament size of -841 nm after 1 h of dealloying. However, the NPS fabricated from the Ag15Cu85 ribbon by the H2O2 craft exhibited a ligament size of -61 nm after 1 h of dealloying. In addition, the NPS fabricated by the strong oxidantassisted dealloying craft exhibited an ultrahomogeneous ligament pore structure and a higher Tafel slope in regard to its hydrogen evolution reaction. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

A novel strategy was developed to fabricate nano-porous silver with different sizes and structures by using different oxidation methods. The NPS fabricated by the strong oxidant-assisted method exhibited a more homogeneous structure and a higher Tafel slope for its hydrogen evolution reaction.