LAUSR

Abstract Tangled-Zn nanowire-composed porous structures were prepared via electrodeposition at particular applied potentials in an amide-type ionic liquid 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis((trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl) amide (IL [BMP][TFSA]) containing ZnCl2. The porous Zn was used as a sacrificial template for preparing a porous nickel duplicate via galvanic displacement in [BMP][TFSA] containing [NiCl4]2−. The solid tangled Zn-nanowires were converted to hollow NiZn-nanotubes in which a typical galvanic displacement reaction occurred through the alloying/dealloying mechanism, and the Kirkendall effect might also took place to form the bi-walled tubes at some spots. In general, the atomic content of Ni exchanged from Zn increased with the increment of reaction time, concentration of [NiCl4]2−, and temperature. The obtained NiZn could be almost completely dealloyed as verified by the XPS analyses to form a porous Ni electrode that displayed high stability and activity to electrooxidation of urea in alkaline solutions. This study indicated that [BMP][TFSA] played a crucial role on successfully cloning porous Ni from its Zn counterpart.