Creation of Porous Materials through Phase Segregation for Catalytic Applications

We have successfully created porous transition metals by a novel template-free route involving phase segregation. Two metal oxide phases are formed via coprecipitation and firing. One of the two phases is sacrificial and may be leached out, leaving behind a porous metal oxide. This material may be reduced to a porous metal. The novelty of our method is the elimination of the use of intermediate templates, like emulsions and bio skeletons. The ease of production of such porous metals is also one of the motivations behind the experiment. Future work will involve the testing of such porous materials in order to determine their use as catalytic electrodes for fuel cells.