Potentiostatic Dealloying Fabrication and Electrochemical Actuation Performance of Bulk Nanoporous Palladium

Metallic actuators increasingly exhibit superiority over conventional actuators (such as piezoelectric ceramics) via low energy consumption and large strain amplitude. Large strain amplitude and high strain energy density (or work density) are required for an actuator with excellent comprehensive performance. Herein, we fabricated bulk nanoporous Pd (np-Pd) with a dense nanoporous structure by two-step potentiostatic dealloying of as-annealed Ni–Pd alloy with chemical corrosion resistance, and investigated the dealloying behaviors as well as electrochemical actuation performance. A visible current density oscillation occurred during dealloying, which is related to formation/dissolution of the passivating film. Additionally, since the dense and continuous ligaments establish a good network connectivity for large strain response, the np-Pd achieves a strain amplitude of up to 3.74% and high strain energy density, which stands out among many actuator materials (e.g., np-AuPt, np-Ni, and np-AlNiCu). Our study provides a useful guidance for fabricating metallic actuators with excellent comprehensive performance.