Bottom-up nanofabrication using self-organized porous templates

Abstract

The great advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology in the last decade have led to the development of new platforms where all physical properties such as size, porosity, geometry and surface can be controlled at the nanoscale. Self-organized nanostructuring using template synthesis is a very promising and rapidly expanding field for the preparation of many different ordered structures ranging from the micrometer to the nanometer size. Porousaluminium, titanium, iron or hafnium oxide templates demonstrated real potential as well-controlled self-organized nanostructured materials for various applications. They are also an elegant tool to fabricate two- or three-dimensional arrays of periodic nanostructures. This work presents detailed methods to implement and fabricate nanoporous templates by anodic oxidation of Al and Ti metal substrates (that can be further used for Fe or Hf anodization). The characterization of nanowires grown in the pores of the synthesized Al2O3 and TiO2 templates is also discussed.