Abstract
The influence of the addition of ethylene glycol (EG) on the pore self-ordering process in anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) membranes prepared by hard anodization (HA) was investigated. It was illustrated that EG has a substantial effect on the pore arrangement of AAO, and it was found that a smaller pore size can be obtained with an EG concentration reaching 20 wt% in aqueous electrolyte. The number of estimated defects of AAO increases significantly with an increase in EG concentration to 50 wt%. Excellent ordering of pores was realized when the samples were anodized in the 30 wt%-EG-containing aqueous electrolyte.
Highlights
Anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) has drawn widespread attention due to its well-defined pore architecture and suitable corrosion resistance, thermal stability, hardness, abrasion resistance and insulation properties [1,2,3,4]
The results demonstrate that the presence of ethylene glycol (EG) has a significant effect on pore ordering and pore size during the hard anodization (HA) process
The morphology of AAOs was characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with images collected from the bottom part of the produced AAOs after wiping and subsequently etching the Al for 55 min in 5 wt% H3PO4 solution at 45°C
Summary
Anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) has drawn widespread attention due to its well-defined pore architecture and suitable corrosion resistance, thermal stability, hardness, abrasion resistance and insulation properties [1,2,3,4]. AAO can be fabricated by hard anodization (HA) in various aqueous electrolytes [8]. To solve the problems in the process of HA, organic compounds were added to the aqueous electrolyte, which aimed at prompting the ordered arrangement of AAO [12,13,14,15]. Zaraska et al [12] have reported the results of fabrication of AAO with electrolyte containing different n-alcohols, and showed that alcohol can boost parameter regularity and pore circularity. Norek et al [15] have reported a systematic study on the effect of addition of EG to oxalic acid electrolytes for the HA process of Al. In this paper, the effect of EG concentration on the pore arrangement of AAO produced by HA in oxalic acids is analysed. The results shed new light on the pore-ordering phenomena during HA
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