Dealloying, a famous ancient etching technique, was used to produce nanoporous metals decades ago. With the development of dealloying techniques and theories, various interesting dealloying products including nanoporous metals/alloys, metal oxides and composites, which exhibit excellent catalytic, optical and sensing performance, have been developed in recent years. As a result, the research on dealloying products is of great importance for developing new materials with superior physical and chemical properties. In this paper, typical dealloying products from Cu-based metallic glasses after dealloying in hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid solutions are summarized. Several potential application fields of these dealloying products are discussed. A promising application of nanoporous Cu (NPC) and NPC-contained composites related to the energy storage field is introduced. It is expected that more promising dealloying products could be developed for practical energy storage applications.

In this work, closed-cell aluminum foams with 4 wt.% contents of short-cut basalt fibers (BFs) were successful prepared by using the modified melt-foaming method. The pore size of BF-containing aluminum foam and commercially pure aluminum foam was counted. The distribution of BF and its effect on the compressive properties of closed-cell aluminum foams were investigated. The results showed that the pore size of BF-containing aluminum foams was more uniform and smaller. BF mainly existed in three different forms: Some were totally embedded in the cell walls, some protruded from the cell walls, and others penetrated through the cells. Meanwhile, under the present condition, BF-containing aluminum foams possessed higher compressive strength and energy absorption characteristics than commercially pure aluminum foams, and the reasons were discussed.