Effect of Aluminum Purity on the Pore Formation of Porous Anodic Alumina

Abstract

Anodic alumina oxide (AAO), a self-ordered hexagonal array, has various applications in nanofabrication such as the fabrication of nanotemplates and other nanostructures. In order to obtain highly ordered porous alumina membranes, a two-step anodization or prepatterning of aluminum are mainly conducted with straight electric field. Electric field is the main driving force for pore growth during anodization. However, impurities in aluminum can disturb the direction of the electric field. To confirm this, we anodized two different aluminum foil samples with high purity (99.999%) and relatively low purity (99.8%), and compared the differences in the surface morphologies of the respective aluminum oxide membranes produced in different electric fields. Branched pores observed in porous alumina surface which was anodized in low-purity aluminum and the size; dimensions of the pores were found to be usually smaller than those obtained from high-purity aluminum. Moreover, anodization at high voltage proceeds to a significant level of conversion because of the high speed of the directional electric field. Consequently, anodic alumina membrane of a specific morphology, i.e., meshed pore, was produced.