Facile fabrication of nanoporous gold with bimodal pore structure

A hierarchical nanoporous gold (HNPG) membrane with a bimodal pore size distribution was fabricated by a simple one-step dehydration reaction of H3BO3, which is different from the complex methods of multi-cyclic electrochemical co-alloying/dealloying. The HNPG exhibits a wide pore distribution from 10 to 120 nm. The special architecture of HNPG significantly enhances the Raman signal to crystal violet and electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of methanol. The formation mechanism of the bimodal structure is discussed.