Monday, 14 May 2018: 09:00
Room 615 (Washington State Convention Center)
Nanoporous metals which have a continuous solid/void structure attracted great attention due to their low density, outstanding mechanical properties, large surface area and excellent electrical conductivity. However, it is difficult to shape these nanoporous metals, especially with hierarchical pores using conventional synthesis techniques. Besides, purely stochastic porous networks may limit their performance for specific applications compared with the potential use of an engineered architecture via proper design. Here we report the fabrication of hierarchical nanoporous gold with deterministic architecture using a combination of 3D printing and dealloying. The 3D printed hierarchical nanoporous gold shows designable three levels of pores and structures with the first level size from 10-1000 microns by controlling the printing nozzle size and spacing, the second level size around several microns adjusted via changing the portion of polymer, and the third level size from 30 nm to microns depending on post-annealing and dealloying conditions. This work widens the choice of materials for 3D printing and enables the creation of a shape-controllable hierarchical nanoporous gold, which has many potential applications in both industry and fundamental science.