Dealloying of Cu-Mg-Ca alloys

The chemical dealloying of Cu-Mg-Ca alloys in free corrosion conditions was investigated for different alloy compositions and different leaching solutions. For some of the precursor alloys, a continuous, pure fcc copper with nanoporous structure can be obtained by dealloying in 0.04 M H₂SO₄ solution. Superficial nanoporous copper structures with extremely fine porous size were also obtained by dealloying in pure water and 0.1 M NaOH solutions. The dealloying of both amorphous and partially crystalline alloys was investigated obtaining bi-phase nanoporous/crystal composites with microstructures depending on the precursor alloy state. The fast dissolution of Mg and Ca makes the Cu-Mg-Ca system an ideal candidate for obtaining nanoporous copper structures with different properties as a function of different factors such as the alloy composition, the quenching process, and leaching conditions.