Nanoporous Ag and Pd foam: Redox induced fabrication using electrochemically deposited nanoporous Cu foam with no need to any additive

A simple, rapid and green method for fabrication of nanoporous metal (Ag and Pd) foams using electrochemically deposited nanoporous copper foam is presented. Ideally direct electrochemical formation of Ag and Pd foam structures without any additive reagent does not lead to a desired result; however, indirect fabrication starting from electrochemically fabricated Cu foam seems promising. Highly porous copper foam is fabricated electrochemically at a copper sheet and in turn serves as a hard template and a redox inducer for the deposition of Ag or Pd. The redox induced replacement of copper foam with Ag or Pd is done via simple immersion of as-fabricated nanoporous copper foam in cation aqueous solutions of Ag or Pd. The surface morphology of the as-fabricated foam is characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), EDX and X-ray diffraction. The hydrogen evolution reaction is investigated as an example to demonstrate the electrocatalytic ability of as-fabricated foams.