Nanoarchitectures for Mesoporous Metals

Abstract

The field of mesoporous metal nanoarchitectonics offers several advantages which cannot be found elsewhere. These materials have been showcasing impressive enhancements of their electrochemical properties for further implementation, compared to their micro- and macroporous counterparts. Since the last few decades, various methods have been developed to achieve narrow pore size distribution with a tunable porosity and particle morphology. While hard templates offer a reliable and intuitive approach to synthesize mesoporous metals, the complexity of the technique and the use of harmful chemicals pushed several research groups to focus in other directions. For example, soft templates (e.g., lyotropic crystals, micelles assemblies) and solution phase methods (requiring to control reduction reactions) offer more and more possibilities in terms of available compositions and morphologies. Indeed, various metal (Pt, Pd, Au, Ru, etc.) can now be synthesized as dendritic, core@shell, hollow or polyhedral nanoparticles, with single- or multicomponents, alloyed or not, with unprecedented electrochemical activity.