Formation of Anodic Aluminum Oxide with Branched and Meshed Pores

Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO), with a self-ordered hexagonal array, is important for various applications in nanofabrication including as the fabrication of nanotemplates and other nanostructures. With the consideration, there have been many efforts to control the characteristic parameters of porous anodic alumina by adjustment of the anodizing conditions such as the electrolyte, temperature, applied potential, and Al purity. In particular, impurities in Al are changing the morphology of an alumina film; however, the formation mechanism has not yet been explained. In this work, we anodized a high purity (99.999%, Al(high)) and low purity (99.8%, Al(low)) aluminum foil by a two-step anodization process in an oxalic acid solution or phosphoric acid. It was found that the purity of aluminum foil has influenced the morphology of the alumina film resulting in branched and meshed pores. Also, electrochemical analysis indicated that the branched and meshed pores in the low-purity Al foil formed by the presence of impurities. Impurities act as defects and change the general growth mechanism for pore formation by inducing an electric field imbalance during anodization. This work contributes to the research field of topographical chemistry and applied fields including nanofabrication.