I am very interested in the techniques that lead to formation of nano-porous Au films or what is sometimes referred to as "gold black" (in fact, nano-porous gold is not necessarily black). As I could identify from literature, there are the following approaches to nano-porous gold: 1. Electrochemical etching 2. Assembling gold colloidal particles (particularly, using polystyrene nano-beads as template) 3. Thermal evaporation in the inert atmosphere under high pressure 4. Laser ablation .... Is there anything else that can be used to prepare nano-porous Au films? Your information will be highly appreciated. (In return, I would be happy to provide the references for the techniques I have mentioned) -- Nickolay Lavrik University of Tennessee Department of Chemistry 420 Buehler Hall Ph.(865) 974-6174