Title: Formation of three-dimensional bicontinuous structures via molten salt dealloying studied in real-time by in situ synchrotron X-ray nano-tomography

Journal Article · · Nature Communications

Abstract Three-dimensional bicontinuous porous materials formed by dealloying contribute significantly to various applications including catalysis, sensor development and energy storage. This work studies a method of molten salt dealloying via real-time in situ synchrotron three-dimensional X-ray nano-tomography. Quantification of morphological parameters determined that long-range diffusion is the rate-determining step for the dealloying process. The subsequent coarsening rate was primarily surface diffusion controlled, with Rayleigh instability leading to ligament pinch-off and creating isolated bubbles in ligaments, while bulk diffusion leads to a slight densification. Chemical environments characterized by X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopic imaging show that molten salt dealloying prevents surface oxidation of the metal. In this work, gaining a fundamental mechanistic understanding of the molten salt dealloying process in forming porous structures provides a nontoxic, tunable dealloying technique and has important implications for molten salt corrosion processes, which is one of the major challenges in molten salt reactors and concentrated solar power plants.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1787400
Report Number(s):
BNL-221827-2021-JAAM; 3441; PII: 23598
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

References (81)

Unveiling 3D Morphology of Multiscale Micro‐Nanosilver Sintering for Advanced Electronics Manufacturing by Ptychographic X‐ray Nanotomography journal February 2020
Fabrication and Surface Functionalization of Nanoporous Gold by Electrochemical Alloying/Dealloying of Au-Zn in an Ionic Liquid, and the Self-Assembly ofL-Cysteine  Monolayers journal June 2005
Effect of composition on thermal expansion of alloys used in power generation journal March 1987
The attack of solid alloys by liquid metals and salt melts journal November 1959
On tortuosity and the tortuosity factor in flow and diffusion through porous media journal January 1989
A thermochemical analysis of the production of anhydrous MgCl2 journal May 2001
Coarsening by network restructuring in model nanoporous gold journal December 2011
Structural evolution of nanoporous gold during thermal coarsening journal July 2012
In situ imaging of dealloying during nanoporous gold formation by transmission X-ray microscopy journal February 2013
Kinetics and morphological evolution of liquid metal dealloying journal August 2016
Connectivity-list based characterization of 3D nanoporous structures formed via selective dissolution journal April 2017
Mechanical properties of nanoporous gold in tension journal May 2017
Extent of dissolution determines the structural similarity between dealloyed nanoporous materials synthesized at unrelated dissolution conditions journal June 2018
In situ STEM/SEM study of the coarsening of nanoporous gold journal January 2019
Self-assembled porous metal-intermetallic nanocomposites via liquid metal dealloying journal February 2019
Speciation of nickel (II) chloride complexes in hydrothermal fluids: In situ XAS study journal December 2012
Simulation of coarsening in two-phase systems with dissimilar mobilities journal February 2020
Effects of alloying elements on the corrosion behavior of Ni-based alloys in molten NaCl-KCl-MgCl2 salt at different temperatures journal October 2018
Hot corrosion behaviour of nickel-cobalt-based alloys in a lithium molten salt journal May 2019
Excellent corrosion resistance of 316 stainless steel in purified NaCl-MgCl2 eutectic salt at high temperature journal April 2020
Evolution of steady-state material properties during catalysis: Oxidative coupling of methanol over nanoporous Ag0.03Au0.97 journal December 2019
Tortuosity characterization of 3D microstructure at nano-scale for energy storage and conversion materials journal March 2014
Mechanism of growth, composition and structure of oxide films formed on ferrous alloys in molten salt electrolytes—a review journal September 2004
Thermophysical properties of Ni-containing single-phase concentrated solid solution alloys journal March 2017
Dealloying by metallic melt journal April 2011
Corrosion in the molten fluoride and chloride salts and materials development for nuclear applications journal August 2018
The molten salt reactor (MSR) in generation IV: Overview and perspectives journal November 2014
Corrosion mechanisms in molten salt thermal energy storage for concentrating solar power journal October 2019
Evolution of a bicontinuous nanostructure via a solid-state interfacial dealloying reaction journal June 2016
A three-dimensional Monte Carlo model for coarsening kinetics of the bi-continuous system via surface diffusion and its application to nanoporous gold journal January 2020
Determining oxidation states of transition metals in molten salt corrosion using electron energy loss spectroscopy journal May 2021
Corrosion behavior of Ni-based alloys in molten NaCl-CaCl 2 -MgCl 2 eutectic salt for concentrating solar power journal October 2017
Molten chloride salts for next generation concentrated solar power plants: Mitigation strategies against corrosion of structural materials journal May 2019
Repeatable and Transferable Processing for Electron Tomography: An Open Platform for Visualization and Reconstruction of 3D Materials journal August 2015
Dealloying Kinetics of AgAu Nanoparticles by In Situ Liquid-Cell Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy journal February 2020
Three-Dimensional Morphological and Chemical Evolution of Nanoporous Stainless Steel by Liquid Metal Dealloying journal April 2017
Designing Multiscale Porous Metal by Simple Dealloying with 3D Morphological Evolution Mechanism Revealed via X-ray Nano-tomography journal December 2019
Revealing 3D Morphological and Chemical Evolution Mechanisms of Metals in Molten Salt by Multimodal Microscopy journal March 2020
Atomically Resolved Dealloying of Structurally Ordered Pt Nanoalloy as an Oxygen Reduction Reaction Electrocatalyst journal July 2016
Size Effects on the Mechanical Behavior of Nanoporous Au journal October 2006
Hierarchical Nested-Network Nanostructure by Dealloying journal June 2013
Direct electrochemical reduction of titanium dioxide to titanium in molten calcium chloride journal September 2000
Evolution of nanoporosity in dealloying journal March 2001
Topology-generating interfacial pattern formation during liquid metal dealloying journal November 2015
Length scales in alloy dissolution and measurement of absolute interfacial free energy journal November 2006
Spontaneous evolution of bicontinuous nanostructures in dealloyed Li-based systems journal August 2013
Structural absorption by barbule microstructures of super black bird of paradise feathers journal January 2018
Decoupling the role of stress and corrosion in the intergranular cracking of noble-metal alloys journal September 2018
Kinetics of electrochemical dissolution of metals in porous media journal July 2019
Comparison of nickel speciation in workplace aerosol samples using sequential extraction analysis and X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy journal January 2015
Bi-continuous pattern formation in thin films via solid-state interfacial dealloying studied by multimodal characterization journal January 2019
Enabling chloride salts for thermal energy storage: implications of salt purity journal January 2019
Parameter-free calculations of X-ray spectra with FEFF9 journal January 2010
Effect of Change of Scale on Sintering Phenomena journal April 1950
One-minute nano-tomography using hard X-ray full-field transmission microscope journal August 2018
Computer simulations of corrosion: Selective dissolution of binary alloys journal April 1989
Nanoporous Gold—Testing Macro-scale Samples to Probe Small-scale Mechanical Behavior journal September 2015
Thermal properties of nanoporous gold journal May 2012
Percolation thresholds and universal formulas journal February 1997
Mechanism of Coarsening and Bubble Formation in High-Genus Nanoporous Metals journal June 2011
Topology evolution during coarsening of nanoscale metal network structures journal July 2019
Effect of transport mechanism on the coarsening of bicontinuous structures: A comparison between bulk and surface diffusion journal October 2020
ATHENA , ARTEMIS , HEPHAESTUS : data analysis for X-ray absorption spectroscopy using IFEFFIT journal June 2005
TomoPy: a framework for the analysis of synchrotron tomographic data journal August 2014
PyXAS – an open-source package for 2D X-ray near-edge spectroscopy analysis journal February 2020
Versatile compact heater design for in situ nano-tomography by transmission X-ray microscopy journal April 2020
Contradicting Geometrical Concepts in Pore Size Analysis Attained with Electron Microscopy and Mercury Intrusion journal December 2008
Developments in synchrotron x-ray computed microtomography at the National Synchrotron Light Source
  • Dowd, Betsy A.; Campbell, Graham H.; Marr, Robert B.
  • SPIE's International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, SPIE Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1117/12.363725
conference September 1999
Dealloying and Dealloyed Materials journal July 2016
The Dealloying Critical Potential journal January 2002
An Atomistic Description of Dealloying journal January 2004
Curvature Effects in Alloy Dissolution journal January 1993
Electrolytic Dissolution of Binary Alloys Containing a Noble Metal journal January 1967
Mechanisms and Morphology Evolution in Dealloying journal January 2013
The topology and morphology of bicontinuous interfaces during coarsening journal May 2009
3D morphological evolution of porous titanium by x-ray micro- and nano-tomography journal June 2013
Mechanism of coarsening and deformation behavior of nanoporous Cu with varying relative density journal April 2020
Pattern formation during electrochemical and liquid metal dealloying journal January 2018
On the topological, morphological, and microstructural characterization of nanoporous metals journal January 2018
Hard Materials with Tunable Porosity journal August 2009
Nanoporous Metals by Alloy Corrosion: Formation and Mechanical Properties journal August 2009