Synthesis and mechanical characterization of transversely isotropic nanoporous platinum

Nanoporous (NP) metal foams combine desirable characteristics of metals with unique nanoarchitectural features to yield weight normalized properties far superior than either dense metals or bulk metal foams. Due to their high surface to volume ratios these structures show great promise as components of fuel cells, as sensors and have been suggested for use in biological applications, for example as antimicrobial scaffolds or as platforms on which to explore biological material behavior. While most NP metal foams are isotropic, structures with anisotropic features spanning different length scales can further extend applications. This work examines the parameters controlling the synthesis of transversely isotropic NP Platinum foam by dealloying an amorphous Pt-Si alloy. The structure that is examined in this work is hierarchical with Voronoi polyhedra that form on the free surface and under each polyhedral hyper-structure, nanocrystalline NP Pt foam forms with radial struts of length ~60 nm and grain size of 5 nm. The size of the polyhedra can be tailored by changing the dealloying potential. In turn, the mechanical properties of these structures as assessed by nanoindentation can range from 1 to 3GPa depending on the geometric arrangement of the struts. Finally, the initiation location of these structures and the relationship between electrochemical parameters and dealloying front evolution is examined.MSCommittee Chair: Antoniou, Antonia; Committee Member: Pierron, Olivier; Committee Member: Zhu, Tin