Nanoporous alloys

A nanoporous alloy prepared by a process comprising:

• (i) admixing at least three different elements, wherein each of the at least three different elements are selected from the group consisting of aluminum (Al), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), vanadium (V), niobium (Nb), molybdenum (Mo), tantalum (Ta), tungsten (W), titanium (Ti), zirconium (Zr), zinc (Zn), halfnium (Hf), copper (Cu), with a sacrificial element selected from the group consisting of lead (Pb), tin (Sn), magnesium (Mg), and bismuth (Bi);
• wherein each of the at least three different elements is present in a molar equivalent from about 0.0 to about 1.0;
• wherein each of the at least three different elements independently has an average particle size of from 10 nm to 500 nm as measured by dynamic light scattering;
• (ii) heating the resulting admixture to an elevated temperature of from about 800° C. to about 2500° C. at atmospheric pressure for a period of time to provide a precursor alloy;
• and
• (iii) dealloying the precursor alloy to remove the sacrificial element to provide a nanoporous alloy wherein the nanoporous alloy has a specific strength that is from about 2× to about 10× greater than a bulk alloy comprising the same at least three different elements and having the same molar equivalents as after the dealloying, except without the nanoporous structure.