In recent years, nanoporous alloys have presented the advantages of a large specific surface area, low density, and simple operation, and they have been widely used in the fields of catalysis, magnetism, and medicine. Nanoporous Pt-Si alloy was prepared by melt-spun and chemical dealloying, and was characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, and transmission electron microscopy. Pt-Si alloys possess a three-dimensional bicontinuous structure and an average size of 5 nanometers. Compared with commercial Pt/C catalysts, nanoporous Pt-Si alloys exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability in ethanol-catalyzed oxidation reactions. It is taken into consideration to be a promising catalyst in direct ethanol fuel cells.

Nanoporous nickel has been prepared by electrodeposition using non-ionic surfactant based liquid crystalline template under optimized processing conditions. Physicochemical properties of nanoporous nickel are systematically characterized through XRD, SEM and AFM analyses. Comparison of electrocatalytic activity of nanoporous nickel with smooth nickel was interrogated using cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analyses. Distinctly enhanced electrocatalytic activity with improved surface poisoning resistance related to nanoporous nickel electrode towards methanol oxidation stems from unique nanoporous morphology. This nanoporous morphology with high surface to volume ratio is highly beneficial to promote active catalytic centers to offer readily accessible Pt catalytic sites for MOR, through facilitating mass and electron transports.