Pattern formation during electrochemical and liquid metal dealloying

• Published in: MRS bulletin Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 27 - 34
• Main Authors: McCue, Ian, Karma, Alain, Erlebacher, Jonah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.01.2018; Springer International Publishing; Springer Nature B.V; Materials Research Society
• Subjects: Applied and Technical Physics; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Composite materials; Copper; Dealloyed Nanoporous Materials with Interface-Controlled Behavior; Dealloying; Dissolution; Electrolytes; Energy Materials; Evolution; Liquid metals; Materials Engineering; Materials Science; Metals; Morphology; Nanotechnology; Phenomenology; Physics; Porosity; self-assembly; nanostructure; diffusion; morphology
• ISSN: 0883-7694; 1938-1425
• DOI: 10.1557/mrs.2017.301

Dealloying has evolved from a problematic corrosion process to a versatile tool for scalable fabrication of nanostructured metals. While the original, and majority of, work in the area has focused on electrochemical dealloying, a powerful variation of dealloying—liquid metal dealloying—has recently gained popularity. This process relies on a melt to carry out selective dissolution, replacing the traditional electrolyte solution. While electrolytes and molten metals are both suitable dealloying media, they can lead to very different morphologies. In this article, we compare and contrast what is known about the microscale physics and chemistry controlling microstructural evolution in electrochemical and liquid metal dealloying. We conclude that the core phenomenology of porosity evolution—a competition between dissolution and interface diffusion—is similar in both dealloying processes, but that the relative magnitudes of these two processes control interfacial pattern formation.