First Synthesis of Continuous Mesoporous Copper Films with Uniformly Sized Pores by Electrochemical Soft Templating

Abstract

Although mesoporous metals have been synthesized by electrochemical methods, the possible compositions have been limited to noble metals (e.g., palladium, platinum, gold) and their alloys. Herein we describe the first fabrication of continuously mesoporous Cu films using polymeric micelles as soft templates to control the growth of Cu under sophisticated electrochemical conditions. Uniformly sized mesopores are evenly distributed over the entire film, and the pore walls are composed of highly crystalized Cu.

Keywords: copper; electrochemical deposition; mesoporous materials; micelles; soft-templates.