Advances in micro structural observations of nanoporous gold

Nijholt, J.E. (2015) Advances in micro structural observations of nanoporous gold. Master's Thesis / Essay, Physics.

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Abstract

A multilayer architecture consisting of gold and nanoporous gold impregnated with polyaniline was tested in order to make an electrolyte-free actuator. Foil specimens were found to be too thin for this purpose. Thicker AgAu alloy sheets were used to make various thicknesses of the multilayer architectures. Sheets with a thickness of 30 μm were found to be good future candidates for a multilayer architecture. Due to bubble formation the compression step of the nanoporous gold layer into solid gold was found impracticable. A silver gold foil and a nanoporous gold foil was used to prove the transmission electron backscatter diffraction technique (T-EBSD). A novel homemade aluminum holder was used and a new professional T-EBSD specimen holder was designed for future usage. The effective resolution for this technique was found around 20 nm. A contrast reversal in Kikuchi patterns was observed for some areas of the foils. This reversal was explained by thickness variations in the foils. A statistical analysis from different areas before and after etching led to the conclusion that high angle grain boundaries are preferably etched away. A morphology observation of the ligaments was done with the use of the image quality parameter. This parameter visualized the ligament structure of the npg (without using the scanning electron microscope picture) and showed close resemblance with the real SEM picture of the ligaments. The 12kt. silver gold foils were found to have large regions where the foils is single-grain thick and small regions where the foil is multi-grain thick.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay)
Degree programme:	Physics
Thesis type:	Master's Thesis / Essay
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2018 08:03
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2018 08:03
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/12545

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