Analysis of nanopore arrangement and structural features of anodic alumina layers formed by two-step anodizing in oxalic acid using the dedicated executable software

Leszek Zaraska,Grzegorz D Sulka,Wojciech J Stępniowski,Eryk Ciepiela,Marian Jaskuła

doi:10.1007/s00339-013-7618-2

Abstract

Anodic porous alumina layers were fabricated by a two-step self-organized anodization in 0.3 M oxalic acid under various anodizing potentials ranging from 30 to 60 V at two different temperatures (10 and 17 ∘C). The effect of anodizing conditions on structural features and pore arrangement of AAO was investigated in detail by using the dedicated executable publication combined with ImageJ software. With increasing anodizing potential, a linear increase of the average pore diameter, interpore distance, wall thickness and barrier layer thickness, as well as a decrease of the pore density, were observed. In addition, the higher pore diameter and porosity values were obtained for samples anodized at the elevated temperature, independently of the anodizing potential. A degree of pore order was investigated on the basis of Delaunay triangulations (defect maps) and calculation of pair distribution or angle distribution functions (PDF or ADF), respectively. All methods confirmed that in order to obtain nanoporous alumina with the best, hexagonal pore arrangement, the potential of 40 V should be applied during anodization. It was confirmed that the dedicated executable publication can be used to a fast and complex analysis of nanopore arrangement and structural features of nanoporous oxide layers.

Highlights

Anodic porous alumina attracted much attention because of its numerous applications in materials of science and nanotechnology [1]
In order to perform a detailed inspection of structural features of as-obtained porous anodic alumina layers, all nanopores in the SEM image were firstly identified by ImageJ software [44]
The effect of anodizing potential on pore diameter and interpore distance of anodic porous alumina synthesized by anodization at different temperatures is shown in Fig. 1a and b, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Anodic porous alumina attracted much attention because of its numerous applications in materials of science and nanotechnology [1]. The influence of operating conditions (especially anodizing potential) on the structural features of nanoporous alumina and degree of pore order has been investigated by using the new, dedicated computational experiment [40] powered by the GridSpace2 Webbased distributed computing platform [41], published as an executable publication [42] using Collage Authoring Environment [43]. The effect of anodizing potential on pore diameter and interpore distance of anodic porous alumina synthesized by anodization at different temperatures is shown in Fig. 1a and b, respectively.

Results

Conclusion