title: Sponge-like nanoporous single crystals of gold.
abstract: Single crystals in nature often demonstrate fascinating intricate porous morphologies rather than classical faceted surfaces. We attempt to grow such crystals, drawing inspiration from biogenic porous single crystals. Here we show that nanoporous single crystals of gold can be grown with no need for any elaborate fabrication steps. These crystals are found to grow following solidification of a eutectic composition melt that forms as a result of the dewetting of nanometric thin films. We also present a kinetic model that shows how this nano-porous single-crystalline structure can be obtained, and which allows the potential size of the porous single crystal to be predicted. Retaining their single-crystalline nature is due to the fact that the full crystallization process is faster than the average period between two subsequent nucleation events. Our findings clearly demonstrate that it is possible to form single-crystalline nano porous metal crystals in a controlled manner.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.|Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Maria Koifman
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Khristosov
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Leonid
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bloch
authors.affiliation: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, Grenoble F-38043, France.|X-ray Microspectroscopy and Imaging Research Group, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Ghent University, Ghent B-9000, Belgium.
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burghammer
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Yaron
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kauffmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Katsman
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.|Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Boaz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pokroy