Anodic alumina membranes with defined pore diameters and thicknesses obtained by adjusting the anodizing duration and pore opening/widening time

The through-hole porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes were fabricated by a simple two-step anodization of aluminum in 0.3?M oxalic acid, 0.3?M sulfuric acid, and 2?wt.% phosphoric acid solutions under different operating conditions followed by the removal of the remaining Al substrate and the pore opening/widening process. The effect of duration of the second anodizing step on the thickness of the porous oxide layer and the influence of other anodizing conditions such as applied voltage, type of electrolyte, and purity of the substrate on the rate of porous oxide growth were discussed in detail. The pore opening procedure for all synthesized membranes was optimized, and the influence of the duration of chemical etching on structural features of AAO membranes, especially pore diameter, was studied. The rate of pore widening was established for AAO membranes formed in various anodizing electrolytes and for different temperatures of 5?wt.% H₃PO₄ used for alumina dissolution.     

Porous alumina membranes with branched nanopores as templates for fabrication of Y-shaped nanowire arrays

Porous anodic alumina membranes with Y-branched and double-branched nanopores were fabricated by the stepwise reduction of anodizing potential during the second step of anodization carried out in 0.3 M oxalic acid. The process of nanoporous layer formation and influence of anodizing parameters on structural features of as-obtained anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes were discussed in detail. The pore rearrangement process occurring after the potential decrease was investigated on the basis of the current density vs. time curves, and results were correlated with the field-emission scanning electron microscope images of the pore bottoms taken after different anodizing durations. It was found that the reorganization of nanopores begins after 600 and 500 s from the time of the potential reduction to 42 and 30 V and the process seems to be completed after about 900 and 800 s, respectively. The through-hole AAO membranes were used as templates for the fabrication of gold and polystyrene nanowires via electrochemical deposition and simple immersing in the polymer solution, respectively. The arrays of hierarchically branched nanowires were synthesized, and the dimensions of nanowires were consistent with the shape and structure of used AAO templates.

     

Fabrication of AAO films with controllable nanopore size by changing electrolytes and electrolytic parameters

In this paper, we fabricate two kinds of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) films with controllable nanopore size by changing electrolytes and electrolytic parameters. The first AAO film with a four-layer structure was fabricated by sequential anodization of aluminum in aqueous solution of H₂SO₄, H₂C₂O₄, malonic acid, and tartaric acid at different anodic oxidation voltages. The average pore diameter of the as-prepared AAO film is 25 nm in the first layer, 54 nm in the second layer, 68 nm in the third layer, and 88 nm in the fourth layer, respectively. The pore densities of each layer decrease downwards to Al substrate, which are 300?×?10⁸, 100?×?10⁸, 21?×?10⁸, and 6.9?×?10⁸ cm^?2, respectively. Furthermore, another AAO film with periodically changed pore diameter was fabricated by alternating anodization of aluminum in aqueous solution of H₃PO₄ and tartaric acid under galvanostatic mode. The anodization processes present approximately identical best ordering voltage (195 V) in H₃PO₄ and tartaric acid under galvanostatic mode. The pore diameter with periodic change can be enlarged through a pore-widening treatment. Both AAO films with special nanopore structures can be used not only as templates for preparing nano-array materials whose pore diameter presents periodic change or gradual increase, but also as nanofilters to separate materials in some special media.     

纳米孔阵列阳极氧化铝膜的制备和表征

本文通过在0℃、0.5mol·L^-1的草酸溶液中阳极氧化高纯铝片的方法制得了阳极氧化铝(AAO)膜，并用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和原子力显微镜(AFM)对AAO膜的形貌和结构进行了表征。结果表明，阻挡层AAO膜中大小一致的膜胞在铝/氧化铝界面上排成六方形阵列;有孔层AAO膜中含有高度有序的纳米孔阵列和膜胞阵列，并且孔的直径和膜胞的尺寸都具有较窄的分布。另外，考察了阳极氧化电压对膜胞尺寸、孔径大小、孔密度和膜胞密度的影响，表明在一定的电压范围内，膜胞和孔径都随电压的升高而增大，而孔密度和膜胞密度却随电压的升高而减小。     

Fabrication of three dimensional interconnected porous carbons from branched anodic aluminum oxide template

In this communication, the morphology of double branched anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates from linear down or step down function of anodizing voltage is discussed. The interconnected AAO film is obtained when the thin pore wall at the final branched channels is dissolved by chemical etching. The three-dimensional interconnected porous carbons are fabricated by carbonization of polyimide film which is negative replicated from the layered interconnected AAO template.     

The effect of anode surface area on nanoporous oxide formation during anodizing of low purity aluminum (AA1050 alloy)

Porous anodic alumina layers were obtained by a simple two-step anodization of low purity aluminum (99.5 % Al, AA1050 alloy) in a 0.3 M oxalic acid electrolyte at 45 V and 20 °C. The effect of anode surface area on structural features of nanoporous oxide and process of oxide formation was investigated. An ordered structure composed of nanostripes or nanopores was formed on the Al surface during electrochemical polishing in a mixture of perchloric acid and ethanol. This nanopattern is then replicated during the anodic oxide formation. It was found that the pore diameter, interpore distance, and porosity increase slightly with increasing surface area of the aluminum sample exposed to the anodizing electrolyte. On the other hand, a slight decrease in pore density and cell wall thickness was observed with increasing surface area of the sample. The detailed inspection of current density vs. time curves was also performed. The obtained results revealed that the higher surface area of the anode, the local current density minimum, was reached faster during first step of anodization and the increase in current density corresponding to the pore rearrangement process was observed earlier. Finally, a dense array of Pd nanowires (～90 nm in diameter) was synthesized by simple electrodeposition of metal inside the channels of through-hole nanoporous anodic alumina templates with relatively large surface areas (4 cm²).     

Initial stage of pore formation process in anodic aluminum oxide template

The initial stage of pore formation and the growth process in anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template have been carefully investigated. Detailed features are found concerning the nanostructure configuration formed on the electropolished aluminum foil and the additional fine structures in the first and second anodization resulting from the current limitation effect during the beginning time of about 2 s. It sheds new light onto the mechanism of the pore-organizing process of AAO templates.     

贫水电解质体系制备多孔阳极氧化铝模板的研究

在有机溶剂为主的含草酸电解质中,研究了大孔径有序度高的阳极氧化铝(AAO)的一步法电化学制备.实验证实,电解质中水含量的降低能够有效抑制铝的电氧化速率和溶解速率,使得其氧化膜孔道的生长能够稳定进行,所得到的六方孔道排列有序度明显高于纯水溶剂制备的电解质体系下的产物.考察了水含量、有机溶剂种类以及电解质浓度对AAO模板孔道形貌的影响.结果表明,有机溶剂贫水电解质体系使得电氧化电压的选取范围比水溶液电解质体系更宽,孔径连续可调,反应条件温和.该方法适合于制备均匀大孔径的AAO模板.     

Effect of continuous magnetic field on the growth mechanism of nanoporous anodic alumina films on different substrates

The effects induced by an external homogeneous magnetic field on the oxide film growth on aluminum in aqueous solutions of oxalic and sulfuric acid and on surface morphology of the alumina films were studied. Aluminum films of 100 nm thickness were prepared by thermal evaporation on SiO₂/Si and glass-ceramic substrates. The pore diameter for oxalic acid alumina films on the SiO₂/Si substrate decreased by 0.8 nm, the interpore distance by 5.9 nm, and cell diameter by 6.9 nm if a magnetic field of 0.5 T was applied. When aluminum was anodized in sulfuric acid on the same substrate, the significant changes in parameters of porous structure of alumina, which were similar to the ones in oxalic acid, are firstly observed in stronger magnetic fields (of 0.7 T). On the basis of data obtained in this study and of previous investigation on the negative space charge and thermally activated defects in anodic alumina, we concluded that the intensity of the magnetic field is associated with energy of electron traps and that the changes of cell diameter characterize the trap concentration. The energy of electron traps in oxalic acid alumina films was proved to be smaller than the one in films formed in sulfuric acid, but the concentration of traps was of the same order of magnitude. When the substrate was replaced with the glass-ceramic one, the pore diameter in oxalic acid alumina films increased to ca. 17.6 nm.     

The effects of electropolishing on the nanochannel ordering of the porous anodic alumina prepared in oxalic acid

A series of porous anodic alumina has been prepared by anodizing aluminum surface in 0.3 M oxalic acid at different voltages. Prior to anodizing, the surface was pretreated in two different electropolishing electrolytes. One was Brytal solution (15% Na₂CO₃ and 5% Na₃PO₄) at 80 °C in which the electropolishing was performed at 2 V. This resulted in about 100–150 nm apart random features of 4–5 nm height. The other was the commonly employed perchloric acid–alcohol solution (1:4 ratio by volume), in which the electropolishing was performed at 20 V. The resulting surface comprised nanostripes of 1–2 nm amplitude with a wavelength of about 50 nm. The former pretreatment proved better for self-ordering of the pores at the anodizing voltage of 50–60 V, while the latter pretreatment was found better at the anodizing voltage of 40 V. The improved pore ordering at a given voltage was attributed to the higher pore density as associated with greater repulsive interactions among the pores.     

Formation of gold-capped silicon nanocolumns on silicon substrate

Gold-capped silicon nanocolumns regularly distributed over silicon substrate were obtained. The columns length was roughly 100 nm; their deviation from perpendicular axis was less than 2°. The diameter of the columns was of the order of 10 nm or below of that. The proposed procedure of nanostructuring included the following main steps: deposition of aluminum thin layer (100–500 nm) by magnetron sputtering on (100) oriented Si wafers; formation of porous self-ordered alumina structures by electrochemical anodizing of the Al film in oxalic acid; electroless inversion of Au in alumina pores; and reactive ion etching. The obtained Si–Au structures are of importance as the platforms for biosensing applications, while the gold-free structures are of interest in photovoltaics.

     

Template induced sol-gel synthesis of highly ordered LaNiO3 nanowires

The highly ordered LaNiO₃ nanowires of the rare-earth perovskite-type composite oxide were controlled synthesized within a porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template by means of sol-gel method using nitrate as raw materials and citric acid as chelating agent. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the obtained LaNiO₃ nanowires had a uniform length and diameter, which were determined by the thickness and the pore diameter of the applied AAO template. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) indicated that the LaNiO₃ nanowires were perovskite-type crystalline structures. Furthermore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy demonstrated that the stoichiometric LaNiO₃ was formed.     

Preparation and Gas Separation Properties of Metal‐Organic Framework Membranes

Continuous and intergrown metal‐organic framework (MOF) membranes, MIL‐100(In) (MIL represents Materials Institute Lavoisier), were prepared directly on porous anodic alumina oxide (AAO) membranes using an in situ crystallization method. The pore surface of MIL‐100(In) is conferred with polarity due to the presence of the 1, 3,5‐benzenetricarboxylic acid. The thickness of MIL‐100(In) membranes was tuned by varying the reactant concentration of indium chloride and 1, 3,5‐benzenetricarboxylic acid. Single gas permeation measurements on this MOF membrane indicate the large permeances of 0.90 × 10^–6 and 0.81 × 10^–6 mol · m^–2·s^–1·Pa^–1 for CO₂ and CH₄, and relatively high ideal selective factors of 3.75 and 3.38 for CO₂/N₂ and CH₄/N₂, respectively.     

Magnetron sputtering of silver nanowires using anodic aluminum oxide template: a new active substrate of surface enhanced Raman scattering and an investigation of its enhanced mechanism

A high quality anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template with ordered apertures about 50-80 nm was fabricated by anodizing aluminum in electrolytes through a two-step method, and silver nanowires with diameters from 40nm to 70nm were prepared on this AAO template by magnetron sputtering. On the glass covered with silver nanowires, high quality surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of sudan II (C₁₈H₁₆N₂O) with enhancement factors of 10⁵ were obtained. And comparison of SERS spectra on silver nanowires with the SERS spectra of silver colloids indicates that main enhanced mode is lightning rod effect of nanorods on the Sudan II/silver nanowires system.     

酸根离子掺杂对多孔阳极氧化铝光致发光特性的影响

采用电化学二次阳极氧化法分别在纯硫酸、纯草酸及硫酸-草酸混合电解液中制备了3个系列的多孔阳极氧化铝(AAO)样品, 考察了它们在250 nm光激发下的光致发光(PL)特性. 研究结果表明, 各系列AAO样品在350～450 nm波段范围内的PL谱形均完全相似, 具有相同的发光中心, 即氧空位缺陷态; 掺杂进入AAO样品的SO₄^2-和C₂O₄^2-分解形成的发光中心对应的光发射分别在288和328 nm附近; 对于硫酸-草酸混合电解液中生长的AAO样品, 其在328 nm附近的发光峰随着硫酸-草酸体积比的增大呈先增大后减少的变化, 而288 nm附近的发光峰却由基本消失到逐渐显现. 初步分析了该现象的成因.     

Effect of atomic layer deposition coatings on the surface structure of anodic aluminum oxide membranes

Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes were characterized by UV Raman and FT-IR spectroscopies before and after coating the entire surface (including the interior pore walls) of the AAO membranes by atomic layer deposition (ALD). UV Raman reveals the presence of aluminum oxalate in bulk AAO, both before and after ALD coating with Al2O3, because of acid anion incorporation during the anodization process used to produce AAO membranes. The aluminum oxalate in AAO exhibits remarkable thermal stability, not totally decomposing in air until exposed to a temperature >900 degrees C. ALD was used to cover the surface of AAO with either Al2O3 or TiO2. Uncoated AAO have FT-IR spectra with two separate types of OH stretches that can be assigned to isolated OH groups and hydrogen-bonded surface OH groups, respectively. In contrast, AAO surfaces coated by ALD with Al2O3 display a single, broad band of hydrogen-bonded OH groups. AAO substrates coated with TiO2 show a more complicated behavior. UV Raman results show that very thin TiO2 coatings (1 nm) are not stable upon annealing to 500 degrees C. In contrast, thicker coatings can totally cover the contaminated alumina surface and are stable at temperatures in excess of 500 degrees C.     

Enhanced photoluminescence of morin-bovine serum albumin on porous anodized aluminum oxide

In this paper, the photoluminescence (PL) of porous anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) impregnated with essentially nonfluorescent morin and morin-bovine serum albumin (BSA) was investigated for the first time, respectively. The evident PL bands similar to that of morin-Al3+ complex in solution were observed and the intensity of the latter with morin-BSA was much greater than that of the former with only morin. Moreover, the enhancement increased with the larger pore diameter of the AAO membranes. The appearance of PL bands might be ascribed to the formation of morin-Al complexes in the AAO pores with its inner wall involved. A likely orderly luminescent model was proposed to be responsible for the observed enhancing phenomena of PL due to the coexistence of morin and BSA in the AAO pores.     

A novel controllable synthesis of silica nanotube arrays with ultraviolet photoluminescence

The synthesis of large-scale one-dimensional silica nanotube (SNT) arrays embedded in Si substrate is demonstrated by using the combination of AAO template mask and Ar ion milling technique. The geometry of the SNTs could be precisely controlled by the process parameters, which included that the SNT diameter and the interpore distance were controlled by AAO anodization voltage and H₃PO₄ pore widening time, while the length of SNT was controlled by ion milling time and AAO aspect ratio. Also, the SNT fabrication parameters could be related to their photoluminescence (PL) emitting properties, when anodized at 40 V, pore widening in H₃PO₄ acid for 70 min and ion milled for 5 min, a strong intensity and stable ultraviolet (UV) light of 3.25 eV (381 nm) emitted from the SNTs under the excitation of 266 nm laser, which could be assumed arising from twofold coordinated silicon lone pair centers in the oxygen deficiency SNTs. The present fabrication of SNT arrays presents a novel method for intensity and frequency adjustable ultraviolet optoelectronic devices.     

A Two‐Dimensional Lamellar Membrane: MXene Nanosheet Stacks

Two‐dimensional (2D) materials are promising candidates for advanced water purification membranes. A new kind of lamellar membrane is based on a stack of 2D MXene nanosheets. Starting from compact Ti₃AlC₂, delaminated nanosheets of the composition Ti₃C₂T_x with the functional groups T (O, OH, and/or F) can be produced by etching and ultrasonication and stapled on a porous support by vacuum filtration. The MXene membrane supported on anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) substrate shows excellent water permeance (more than 1000 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹) and favorable rejection rate (over 90 %) for molecules with sizes larger than 2.5 nm. The water permeance through the MXene membrane is much higher than that of the most membranes with similar rejections. Long‐time operation also reveals the outstanding stability of the MXene membrane for water purification.     

Thermal expansion, gas permeability, and conductivity of Ni-YSZ anodes produced by different techniques

The supported Ni-YSZ (50 wt.% Ni?+?50 wt.% Zr_0.84Y_0.16O_1.92) anodes were produced of powders, obtained by the ceramic method, combustion synthesis, deposition of nickel oxide onto the YSZ ceramics, and deposition of 28 wt.% of nickel oxide onto the 39 wt.% NiO?+?61 wt.% YSZ powders. The influence of the NiO-YSZ powder production technique, the amount of pore former and sintering temperature on the porosity, gas permeability, thermal expansion, and anode conductivity were studied. The porosity of anodes made of powders obtained by the ceramic method is always lower than the porosity of the anodes made of powders produced by combustion synthesis under otherwise equal conditions. The anode electrical conductivity greatly depends on the powder production techniques, while the anode thermal expansion is only slightly influenced by them.