Biomimetic method for metallic nanostructured mesoscopic models fabrication

摘要

Various metallic structures of complex shape, resembling natural objects suchas plants, mushrooms, and seashells, were produced when growing nanowires bymeans of pulsed current electroplating in porous membranes. These structuresoccur as the result of nanowires self-assembling (biomimetics) if theelectroplating is continued after the nanowires reach the membrane surface. Byvarying the membrane geometry and the pulsed current parameters, andalternating electroplating from two baths with different electrolytes, variousmodels were fabricated, including a hollow container with wall thickness of10-30 nm. The possibility of shape regulation for models was demonstrated: incertain conditions, mushroom- and shell-like convex-concave models of the samekind were obtained. The hierarchical structure of models at the nano-, micro-and mesoscopic levels is shown through fragmentation and chemical etching.