Direct electrodeposition of nanoporous gold with controlled multimodal pore size distribution

The fast one-step preparation of high-surface area nanoporous gold with a multimodal pore size distribution is proposed. The possibility of electrodepositing nanoporous gold was predicted based on Winand's metal classification. The influence of the experimental parameters on the gold morphology is studied. The deposition of porous Au foams is only possible when a sufficient amount of ammonium chloride is added to the electrolyte as a hydrogen source. The meta-stability of the material's morphology is examined. The freshly prepared samples have a very high-surface area, which decreases with stabilization of the gold. The stabilized Au foams have a well-known structure on the nanoscale with ligaments, which are usually obtained after dealloying, and the microscale morphology remains unchanged. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.