Electrochemically replicated smooth aluminum foils for anodic alumina nanochannel arrays

A fast electrochemical replication technique has been developed to fabricate large-scale ultra-smooth aluminum foils by exploiting readily available large-scale smooth silicon wafers as the masters. Since the adhesion of aluminum on silicon depends on the time of surface pretreatment in water, it is possible to either detach the replicated aluminum from the silicon master without damaging the replicated aluminum and master or integrate the aluminum film to the silicon substrate. Replicated ultra-smooth aluminum foils are used for the growth of both self-organized and lithographically guided long-range ordered arrays of anodic alumina nanochannels without any polishing pretreatment.