Electrolysis and characterization of nanoporous platinum

Most materials studied and/or used technologically today are electrically neutral, i.e the positive and negative electric charges are balanced. The properties of these materials are varied prodominantly by modifying the atomic structure.Limited attention has been paid so far to the option of influencing the properties of materials by deviating from charge neutrality. In fact, solids with nanometer-sized microstructures may open the way to generate materials with an excess of a deficit of electrons or holes of up to 0.3 electrons/holes per atom. Such deviations from charge neutrality may be achieved either by means of an extremely applied voltage or by space charges at interfaces between materials with different chemical compositions .As many properties of solid materials depend on their electronic structure, significant deviations from charge neutrality result in materials with new, yet mostly unexplored properties such as modified electric, ferromagnetic, optical etc. properties. In fact, two types of property variations may be distinguished: Variations that last as long as the external voltage is applied and subsequently vanish reversibly once the external voltage is removed. These properties may be tuned by tuning the applied voltage. The second type of property changes are the persistent ones. They remain even if the material returns to the electrically neutral state. New types of alloys or materials with new types of atomic structures seem to be examples of persistent variations. İn this study, a change of the DC electrical conductivity of a nanoporous platinum was observed when surface charge was induced on the nanomaterial by making it a working electrode in an electrochemical cell. Existing and reasonable new technological applications of solids deviation from charge neutrality are discussed .