Influence of cooling rate and addition of lanthanum and cerium on formation of nanoporous copper by chemical dealloying of Cu15Al85 alloy

The influence of cooling rate and addition of La and Ce on the formation of nanoporous copper by chemical dealloying of Cu15Al85 alloy was studied. The components and microstructures of nanoporous copper were characterized by utilizing X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. N2 adsorption/desorption experiments were used to evaluate specific surface areas of samples. The results showed that, with the increase of cooling rate, phase composition of precursor alloy almost had no change, the ligament size of nanoporous copper had a decrease trend, and specific surface area increased gradually. And it was found that the specific surface area of the nanoporous copper obtained by Cu15Al85 alloy containing La and Ce was 63.258 m2/g, which was more than 11.739 m2/g compared with the nanoporous copper dealloying by Cu15Al85 alloy without La and Ce under the same conditions.