Noble metal foams (NMFs) are a new class of functional materials featuring properties of both noble metals and monolithic porous materials, providing impressive prospects in diverse fields. Among reported synthetic methods, the sol-gel approach manifests overwhelming advantages for versatile synthesis of nanostructured NMFs (i.e., noble metal aerogels) under mild conditions. However, limited gelation methods and elusive formation mechanisms retard structure/composition manipulation, hampering on-demand design for practical applications. Here, highly tunable NMFs are fabricated by activating specific ion effects, enabling various single/alloy aerogels with adjustable composition (Au, Ag, Pd, and Pt), ligament sizes (3.1 to 142.0 nm), and special morphologies. Their superior performance in programmable self-propulsion devices and electrocatalytic alcohol oxidation is also demonstrated. This study provides a conceptually new approach to fabricate and manipulate NMFs and an overall framework for understanding the gelation mechanism, paving the way for on-target design of NMFs and investigating structure-performance relationships for versatile applications.

贵金属泡沫（NMFs）是一类新型的功能材料，具有贵金属和整体多孔材料的特性，在各个领域都具有令人瞩目的前景。在已报道的合成方法中，溶胶-凝胶法在温和条件下具有纳米结构NMF（即贵金属气凝胶）的多功能合成的巨大优势。但是，有限的胶凝方法和难以捉摸的形成机理阻碍了结构/组合物的操作，妨碍了实际应用中的按需设计。在这里，高度可调谐的NMF是通过激活特定的离子效应而制造的，从而使各种单/合金气凝胶具有可调节的成分（Au，Ag，Pd和Pt），韧带尺寸（3.1至142.0 nm）和特殊的形态。还展示了它们在可编程自推进装置和电催化醇氧化中的卓越性能。这项研究提供了一种概念上新的方法来制造和操作NMF，并为理解凝胶化机理提供了一个总体框架，为NMF的目标设计和研究通用应用的结构-性能关系铺平了道路。