An innovative technological solution for low-cost nanostructured alumina synthesis

S. GARCÍA; M. SALGUERO SALAS; D. M. ARCINIEGAS JAIMES; M. BROENS; O. LINAREZ PÉREZ; V. C. FUERTES ; N. BAJALES

Temuco

Seminario; 17th International Seminar on Condensed Physics and Statistical Physics, SIMAFE 2022.; 2022

Universidad de la Frontera. Departamento de Ciencias Físicas.

Nowadays, anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes are popular materials for potential applications in different areas such as catalysis, molecular separation, biomedical applications, drugs delivery and nanostructure fabrication, among others. Even though the aluminum anodizing process dates to 1857, the increasing interest becomes remarkable in the nanotechnology field since Masuda et al. [1] reported the two-stage anodizing process for obtaining self-ordered AAO templates. Afterwards, Lee et al. [2] proposed an AAO fast synthesis alternative by applying only one step anodizing process, called hard anodization (HA). This latter is usually achieved by using sophisticated power supplies to reach pore diameters between 100 nm and 200 nm.In this work we present an innovative technological proposal performed to reach high quality AAO membranes fabricated by HA synthesis at a very low-cost. In fact, a smart modular combination of DC voltage sources joined with open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software, were used to build a HA power supply for AAO templates. Reproducible long-range order, homogenous circularity and low pore diameter dispersion are some of the main attributes for these resultant AAO templates, which are relevant characteristics when using them as water filters or for Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) applications. Fig. 1 shows the quality of the obtained AAO membrane when a final voltage of 100 V is applied to reach a mean pore diameter of around 100 nm. References[1] H. Masuda et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 35 (1996) 126–129.[2] W. Lee, S-J. Park, Chem. Rev. 114 (2014)7487–7556.