posted on 2024-05-27, 10:29authored byJiamei Chen, Bingwu Liu, Huan Cheng, Moxia Li, Xuguang Sun, Xidong Duan, Jiawen Hu
Interfacial
self-assembly is a well-established method
for the
preparation of a two-dimensional (2D) metal nanofilm from nanoscale
building blocks. However, the as-prepared nanofilm exhibits limited
conductivity because of the large contact resistance at the junctions
among its building blocks. Here, we report a salt-assisted, in situ
current nanowelding strategy to weld an interfacial Au nanoparticle
(NP) film for downstream applications, such as high-performance electrocatalysts.
Particularly, we found that salt-assisted interfacial assembly can
reduce the size of the nanogaps among neighboring Au NPs and, in turn,
greatly improve the conductivity of the resultant Au NP film. Consequently,
the Au NP film can be readily welded using current, and the welding
extent can be monitored in real-time by looking at the passing current.
The welding finally produces a nanoporous Au film (NPGF) with a network
nanostructure, high conductivity, and abundant active sites so that
it delivers a large current density of 86.96 μA·cm–2 (1.81 times higher than that from the pristine Au
NP film) and shows improved cycling stability for methanol electrooxidation.
Thus, these results offer a low-cost, solution-processable approach
for the fabrication of a large-area, interconnected nanofilm from
nanoscale building blocks beyond Au NPs, which may find diverse downstream
applications.