Synthesis of various 3D porous gold-based alloy nanostructures with branched shapes

Abstract This paper presents a facile and flexible synthesis platform for various 3D porous gold-iron nanostructures based on selective laser heating of colloidal nanoparticles and selective acid treatment. The presented approach allows to create porous gold-based nanostructures with different morphologies. In addition, for the first time, our studies indicate that various nanoarchitectures (brain-like, flower-like, cage-like, or raspberry-like structures) can be obtained by varying the experimental conditions such as size of Au and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles, solvent, laser fluence, and irradiation time. We believe that these porous structures will find immediate applications in catalysis and separations, where high surface area and magnetic properties are often simultaneously required.