Nanoporous Cu wide ribbons with good mechanical integrity

In this work we report the fabrication of nanoporous Cu wide ribbon samples by electrochemical dealloying the minor Si alloyed γ-Cu30Mn70 solid solution alloys. The γ-Cu30Mn70 structure was found to be capable of trapping a minor amount of Si as solute by liquid quenching. Ribbon samples of 10 mm wide with tunable thickness were made at the Cu28Mn70Si2 composition. The γ-Cu28Mn70Si2 alloy can be turned into wide ribbon nanoporous Cu with the pore size of ∼30–50 nm and with good mechanical integrity. A thin layer of Si-enriched glue structure with ∼50 nm thickness was formed continuously along the grain boundaries to play the role of reinforcement for the dealloyed structure.