UC Berkeley

Nanocasting based on porous templates is a powerful strategy in accessing materials and structures that are difficult to form by bottom-up syntheses in a controlled fashion. A facile synthetic strategy for casting ordered, nanoporous platinum (NP-Pt) networks with a high degree of control by using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as templates is reported here. The Pt precursor is first infiltrated into zirconium-based MOFs and subsequently transformed to 3D metallic networks via a chemical reduction process. It is demonstrated that the dimensions and topologies of the cast NP-Pt networks can be accurately controlled by using different MOFs as templates. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface areas of the NP-Pt networks are estimated to be >100 m² g^-1 and they exhibit excellent catalytic activities in the methanol electrooxidation reaction (MEOR). This new methodology presents an attractive route to prepare well-defined nanoporous materials for diverse applications ranging from energy to sensing and biotechnology.