Electroless synthesis of cellulose-metal aerogel composites

Abstract

An environmentally benign electroless plating procedure enables a dense coating of silver nanoparticles onto complex cellulose aerogel structures. In the course of the nanoparticle deposition, the morphological characteristics of the aerogel are preserved, such as the continuous self-supporting network structure. While achieving a high metal loading, the large specific surface area as well as the low density is retained in the cellulose-metal aerogel composite. Due to the interesting features of cellulose aerogel substrates (e.g., the accessibility of its open-porous network) and electroless plating (e.g., the possibility to control the density, size, and composition of the deposited metal nanoparticles), the outlined synthetic scheme provides a facile and flexible route towards advanced materials in heterogeneous catalysis, plasmonics, and sensing.