Variation of crystallinity of Cu and Cu2O nanowires arrays grown in various pores of porous alumina membrane

Abstract

Various pore sizes of a porous alumina membrane were fabricated using H2SO4 and H2C2O4 electrolyte under different ionization voltages. Cu nanowire arrays with high aspect ratios, uniform pore size, and ordered pore arrangement were synthesized using the above porous alumina membrane (PAM). Moreover, Cu2O nanowire arrays were prepared through the oxidization of Cu metal nanowire arrays. From the microstructure and compositional analysis, it was observed that pores of different sizes, i.e. 20~30, 70~90 and 90~100 nm could be obtained by controlling various electrolytes and anodization voltage. The Cu nanowire synthesized with various pore sizes were found to be single crystal (20~90 nm) and polycrystalline (90~100nm) respectively. The single crystal Cu with (111) direction was occurred due to homogeneous current density distribution and relationship between current density (J) and nucleus radius (ro). After oxidation of Cu, the Cu2O nanowires with the pore sizes of 20~100 nm was found to be single crystal. The rearranged of Cu and O2 lattice sites promotes the enhancement of crystalline property.