Method for fabrication of copper-silver and copper-gold porous microsheets

1. A method for preparing porous microsheets, the method comprising:

providing a solution of first metal microsheets comprising copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, or silver microsheets;

providing a metal precursor solution of a second metal comprising silver, gold, palladium, platinum, nickel, iron, cobalt, or combinations thereof, wherein the second metal is a different metal than the first metal microsheets;

injecting the metal precursor solution into the solution of the first metal microsheets with a volume of the metal precursor solution at a combining rate and at a combining temperature to form a combined mixture;

holding the combined mixture at a reaction temperature for a reaction time;

cooling the combined mixture; and

isolating resulting microsheets from the combined mixture.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the combining temperature is from 50 to 240° C.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reaction temperature is from 10 to 300° C.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reaction time is 2 minutes to 240 minutes.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one step of the method is conducted under an inert atmosphere.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding a hydrophobic solvent during or after cooling the combined mixture and before isolating the resulting microsheets.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising washing the porous microsheets with a hydrophobic solvent one or more times after isolating the porous microsheets.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal precursor solution has a metal concentration from 0.01 M to 0.5 M.

9. A method for preparing porous microsheets, the method comprising:

providing a solution of first metal microsheets comprising copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, or silver microsheets;

providing a metal precursor solution of a second metal comprising silver, gold, palladium, platinum, nickel, iron, cobalt, or combinations thereof, wherein the second metal is a different metal than the first metal microsheets;

combining the solution comprising the copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, or silver microsheets with a volume of the metal precursor solution at a combining rate and at a combining temperature to form a combined mixture;

holding the combined mixture at a reaction temperature for a reaction time;

cooling the combined mixture; and

isolating resulting microsheets from the combined mixture,

wherein the solution of first metal microsheets comprise copper microsheets and is provided by a synthetic method, the synthetic method comprising:

providing a copper complex solution comprising copper and a first complexing agent;

preparing a reaction mixture comprising trioctylphosphine by heating the reaction mixture to 290 to 310° C. under inert atmosphere;

combining the copper complex solution and the reaction mixture at a temperature of 290 to 310° C. under inert atmosphere;

holding the reaction mixture at a temperature of 290 to 310° C. for 55 to 65 minutes under inert atmosphere; and

cooling the reaction mixture.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the copper complex solution is provided by heating a mixture comprising oleylamine, 1-octadecene, and copper (I) chloride or copper (I) bromide to a temperature from 100 to 300° C. under inert atmosphere for a time from 1 to 60 minutes.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the metal precursor solution of the second metal comprises silver, the metal precursor solution comprising silver at 0.05 M in oleylamine, wherein the volume of the metal precursor solution is 2 mL, wherein the combining rate is 1 mL/minute, wherein the combining temperature and the reaction temperature are 120° C., wherein the reaction time is 60 minutes, and wherein the porous microsheets comprise copper-silver porous microsheets.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the metal precursor solution of the second metal comprises gold, the metal precursor solution comprising gold at 0.05 M in oleylamine, wherein the volume of the metal precursor solution is 2 mL, wherein the combining rate is 1 mL/minute, wherein the combining temperature and the reaction temperature are 140° C., wherein the reaction time is 60 minutes, and wherein the porous microsheets comprise copper-gold porous microsheets.

13. A method for preparing porous microsheets, the method comprising:

providing a solution of first metal microsheets comprising copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, or silver microsheets;

providing a metal precursor solution of a second metal comprising silver, gold, palladium, platinum, nickel, iron, cobalt, or combinations thereof, wherein the second metal is a different metal than the first metal microsheets;

combining the solution comprising the copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, or silver microsheets with a volume of the metal precursor solution at a combining rate and at a combining temperature to form a combined mixture;

holding the combined mixture at a reaction temperature for a reaction time;

cooling the combined mixture; and

isolating resulting microsheets from the combined mixture,

wherein the copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, or silver microsheets have an average thickness more than 100 nm.

14. A method for preparing porous microsheets, the method comprising:

providing a solution of first metal microsheets comprising copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, or silver microsheets;

providing a metal precursor solution of a second metal comprising silver, gold, palladium, platinum, nickel, iron, cobalt, or combinations thereof, wherein the second metal is a different metal than the first metal microsheets;

combining the solution comprising the copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, or silver microsheets with a volume of the metal precursor solution at a combining rate and at a combining temperature to form a combined mixture;

holding the combined mixture at a reaction temperature for a reaction time;

cooling the combined mixture; and

isolating resulting microsheets from the combined mixture,

wherein the copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, or silver microsheets have an average length, average width, or average diameter more than 500 nm.