Synthesizing Nanoporous Stainless Steel Films via Vacuum Thermal Dealloying

Vacuum thermal dealloying is a recently developed technique and was newly introduced to produce nanoporous metals, due its intriguing advantages, i.e., preventing oxidation producing no chemical waste, etc. Here, we report on the fabrication of stainless steel films by vacuum sputtered steel–magnesium precursor films. It found that crack-free can be successfully attained under broad temperature range 450–600 °C, with time 0.5–2 h. The resulting structure ligaments were temperature- time-dependent, moreover, condition “600 °C + 2 h” generated most homogeneous structure. Moreover, small amounts residual Mg at pore sites in resultant structures, suggesting not fully complete.