Fabrication of nanoporous bi-metallic Ag–Pd alloys with open pores

• Nanoporous bi-metallic Ag-Pd alloys were synthesized by dealloying.
• The characteristic width of ligaments is less than 100nm.
• The ligament is composed of Ag grains with the solid solution Pd.
• The composition of nanoporous alloys can be adjusted in a large range.

Nanoporous bi-metallic Ag–Pd alloys were synthesized by dealloying of amorphous Ag–Pd–Cu–Si alloys in acid solutions. Less noble Cu and Si elements were removed from the amorphous precursors by free dealloying process. The ligament with the characteristic width of less than 100 nm is composed of Ag grains with the solid soluted Pd, and the average grain size is about 50 nm. The present work shows that the wide composition range and microstructure homogeneity of amorphous alloys makes them potential to obtain nanoporous alloys with tunable composition by simple dealloying process.