Here we describe a simple approach to fabricate robust three-dimensional periodic porous nanostructures inside the microchannels. In this approach, the colloidal crystals were first grown inside the microchannel using an evaporation-assisted self-assembly process. Then the void spaces among the colloidal crystals were filled with epoxy-based negative tone photoresist. After subsequent developme...

Dealloying, a famous ancient etching technique, was used to produce nanoporous metals decades ago. With the development of dealloying techniques and theories, various interesting dealloying products including nanoporous metals/alloys, metal oxides and composites, which exhibit excellent catalytic, optical and sensing performance, have been developed in recent years. As a result, the research on...

A facile spray drying technique has been developed for large-scale and template-free production of nanoporous silica with controlled morphology, large pore size, and high pore volume, using commercially available fumed silica, Aerosil 200, as a sole precursor. This approach can be applied to the preparation of functional nanoporous materials, in this study, lanthanum oxide functionalised silica...

The growth of known biologically-relevant mineral phases on semiconducting surfaces is one strategy to explicitly induce bioactivity in such materials, either for sensing or drug delivery applications. In this work, we describe the use of a spark ablation process to fabricate deliberate patterns of Ca(10)(PO4)6(OH)2 on crystalline Si (calcified nanoporous silicon). These patterns have been prin...

Both academia and industries have put great efforts into developing non-destructive technologies for the fabrication of polymeric nanoporous materials. Such non-destructive technologies developed with supercritical CO2 (scCO2) and CO2-expanded liquids (CXLs) have been attracting more and more attention because they have been demonstrated to be green and effective media for porous polymer prepar...

The electrophoretic deposition of nanoporous TiO2 layers allows us to investigate separately the influence of sintering temperature, porosity, and conformal surface coatings on the effective diffusion coefficient Deff of excess electrons in porous layers. Photocurrent transients were measured to obtain Deff in nanoporous TiO2 layers immersed in aqueous electrolyte. The applied treatments contro...

Simple nanoporous alumina matrix modification procedure, in which the electrically highly insulating alumina barrier layer at the bottom of the pores is replaced with the conductive layer of the gold beds, was described. This modification makes possible the direct electron exchange between the underlying aluminum support and the redox species encapsulated in the alumina pores, thus, providing t...

Nanoporous electrodes have been fabricated by selectively dissolving the less noble α-Fe crystalline phase from nanocrystalline Fe85.2B14-xPxCu0.8 alloys (x= 0, 2, 4 at.%). The preferential dissolution is triggered by the weaker electrochemical stability of α-Fe nanocrystals than amorphous phase. The final nanoporous structure is mainly composed of amorphous residual phase and minor undissolved...

Gas diffusion in nanoporous carbon includes distinct diffusion modes: surface diffusion on the pore walls and non-surface diffusion away from pore walls. We have performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of Ar diffusion in disordered nanoporous carbon. The main objective of this work is to separate the surface diffusion and non-surface diffusion contributions so as to comprehend their respe...

High-energy-density rechargeable Li-O2 batteries are one of few candidates that can meet the demands of electric drive vehicles and other high-energy applications because of the ultra-high theoretical specific energy. However, the practical realization of the high rechargeable capacity is usually limited by the conflicted requirements for porous cathodes in high porosity to store the solid reac...