Highly ordered macroporous films of platinum, palladium and cobalt with regular arrays of spherical pores with diameters of 0.40, 0.70 or 1 μm are prepared by electrochemical deposition into the interstitial spaces of a template formed by polystyrene latex spheres self-assembled on gold electrodes; after deposition of platinum, palladium or cobalt, the polystyrene spheres are fully removed by washing in toluene to leave a highly periodic, hexagonal close packed, interconnected network of monodisperse spherical pores within the metal film, the size of which is determined by the diameter of the polystyrene latex particles used to prepare the template.

We investigate the properties of gold surfaces patterned using a nanoscale “lost wax” technique by electrochemical deposition through a self-assembled latex template. Near-spherical gold nanocavities within the resulting porous films support localized surface plasmons which couple strongly to incident light, appearing as sharp spectral features in reflectivity measurements. The energy of the resonances is easily tunable from ultraviolet to near infrared by controlling the diameter and height of the nanocavities. The energies of these features agree well with the Mie resonances of a perfect spherical void.

Three-dimensional highly ordered macroporous conducting polymer films were prepared using a self-assembled colloidal template based on poly(styrene) latex spheres. Poly(pyrrole), poly(aniline) and poly(bithiophene) were polymerised electrochemically and the polymer grown through the interstitial spaces between poly(styrene) latex spheres (0.5 µm or 0.75 µm in diameter) self-assembled in a close-packed array on gold substrates. The latex sphere template was subsequently removed by dissolution in toluene. Regular pore sizes and interconnected channels within the conducting polymer films were evident from scanning electron microscopy studies. The pore sizes for the conducting polymers studied were related to the dimensions of poly(styrene) spheres used as the template. Evidence for shrinkage of the structure was found for some polymers studied.