Study on dealloying of Ag40Zn60 alloy

The solid solution of Ag40Zn60 alloy can exhibit phase structure of hcp (-phase and body-centered cubic (-phase at room temperature. The alloy was dealloyed at the potential of 0.6 V in 0.1 M H2SO4 solution. The result shows that corrosion potential and critical potential decreases with increasing concentration of H2SO4 solution. After dealloying, only face-centered cubic porous Ag remained, forming different porous Ag morphology, with ligament width and pore size of (-phase or (-phase. Different morphology of porous Ag was obtained by controlling alloy composition, and the formation mechanism was discussed.