Nanoporous copper sonocatalysts prepared by dealloying Cu-Al-Ti amorphous ribbons

Nanoporous copper (NPC) with a controllable ligament width was prepared by chemically dealloying Cu45Al45Ti10 amorphous ribbons in dilute HCl solution. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis confirmed the 3D, bicontinuous, nanoporous structure constituting fcc-Cu ligaments of 39-79 nm thickness. The coarsening of NPC ligaments increased significantly with an increase of HCl concentration, reaction temperature or time. The surface diffusivity and activation energy of NPC were also calculated. Finally, the catalytic activity of NPC was validated with the ultrasound and H2O2-assisted degradation of methyl orange (MO), where 99% MO was degraded within 15 min.