Preparation of monolithic foamed Au/Ag alloy with hollow microspheres

The polystyrene (PS) microspheres were coated by gold colloid with an average grain size of 4.6 nm by the electrostatic effect, and then electroless plated with gold silver consecutively. The deposited gold layer was 70 to 90 nm thick, almost coating the PS spheres completely. The silver particles deposited subsequently were compact, and larger than the previously de- posited gold particles, forming a 200 to 400 nm-thick layer on the surface of each Au/PS microsphere. The self-supported hollow-sphere Au40 Ag60 alloy was then obtained after the template being removed. Finally, the columniform foamed Au-Ag alloy, 5 mm in diameter, 1.2 g/cm3 in density, was obtained with the hollow spheres of 10 μm diameter after heat treatment. (authors)