Tuning the ligament/channel size of nanoporous copper by temperature control

Nanoporous Cu powders have been fabricated through mechanical alloying and subsequent dealloying. The ligament/channel size of as small as 21.3 +/- 2.7 nm has been obtained by dealloying as-milled Al-Cu powders in a NaOH solution at room temperature, and can be tuned by changing the dealloying temperature. The surface diffusivity of Cu adatoms and mean activation energy have been evaluated based upon surface diffusion controlled coarsening mechanism.