Highly ordered anodic alumina nanotemplate with about 14 nm diameter

A novel method for the fabrication of highly ordered nanopore arrays with very small diameter of 14 nm was demonstrated by using low-temperature anodization. Two-step anodization was carried out at 25 V, sulfuric acid concentration of 0.3 M, and electrolyte temperature of −15 °C. After anodization, a regular pore array with mean diameter of 14 nm and interpore distance of 65 nm was formed. The pore diameter and regular arrangement were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fast Fourier transformation (FFT), respectively. The present results strongly suggest that the diameter of pores in a highly ordered alumina template can be reduced by lowering the anodization temperature.     

A novel integration approach for combining the components to minimize a micro-fuel cell

This work employs porous silicon as a gas diffusion layer (GDL) in a micro-fuel cell. Pt catalyst is deposited on the surface of, and inside, the porous silicon by the physical vapor deposition (PVD) method, to improve the porous silicon conductivity. Porous silicon with Pt catalyst replaces traditional GDL, and the Pt metal that remains on the rib is used to form a micro-thermal sensor in a single lithographic process.     

Self-organized porous TiO2 and ZrO2 produced by anodization

The present work investigates the electrochemical formation of self-organized high aspect ratio TiO₂ and ZrO₂ nanotube layers. The formation and growth of a self-organized porous layer can be achieved directly by anodization without any templates in fluoride containing electrolytes. The morphology of the porous layers is affected by the electrochemical conditions such as the electrolyte composition, the pH and the exact polarization treatment (such as the potential sweep rate from the open-circuit potential to the anodizing potential). For Ti, nanotube layers are formed with diameters varying from approx. 20 nm to 100 nm and lengths from approx. 0.25 μm to 2.5 μm depending on the electrolytes and pH. On the other hand, for Zr, tubes of 50 nm in diameter and up to approx. 17 μm in length can be grown—a key parameter in this case is the potential sweep rate. The large difference between Ti and Zr in the achievable thickness of nanotube layers indicates a difference in the growth mechanism which may be based on the different chemical dissolution rates of electrochemically formed oxides.     

Exploration of artificial neural network to predict morphology of TiO2 nanotube

Artificial neural network (ANN) was developed to predict the morphology of TiO₂ nanotube prepared by anodization. The collected experimental data was simplified in an innovative approach and used as training and validation data, and the morphology of TiO₂ nanotube was considered as three parameters including the degree of order, diameter and length. Applying radial basis function neural network to predict TiO₂ nanotube degree of order and back propagation artificial neural network to predict the nanotube diameter and length were emphasized in this paper. Some important problems such as the selection of training data, the structure and parameters of the networks were discussed in detail. It was proved in this paper that ANN technique was effective in the prediction work of TiO₂nanotube fabrication process.     

基于多孔硅的共平面波导制备及传输特性研究

多孔硅被认为是RF应用领域中较有潜力的衬底材料。文章利用多孔硅作衬底，制备了微型微波共平面波导，采用多线方法计算出该波导在多孔硅上的插入损耗和有效介电常数；提出了通过多孔硅的相对介电常数来确定多孔度的方法。实验测试结果表明，在20μm多孔硅上的波导，其插入损耗在1-30GHz范围内为1—40dB/cm；而在70μm多孔硅上制备的波导，其插入损耗在整个测试频段内不超过7dB/cm。通过有效介电常数的计算，推算出实验制备的70μm多孔硅材料的多孔度约为65％。     

用氧化多孔硅方法制备厚的SiO_2膜及其微观分析

用氧化多孔硅的方法来制备厚的 Si O2 成本低 ,省时 .氧化硅膜的厚度 ,表面粗糙度和组分这三个参数 ,对波导器件的性能有重要影响 ,扫描电子显微镜 ( SEM)、原子力显微镜 ( AFM)和俄歇分析得到 :氧化的多孔硅的膜厚已达 2 1 .2μm;表面粗糙度在 1 nm以内 ,Si和 O的组分比为 1∶ 1 .90 6.这些结果表明 ,用氧化多孔硅方法制备的厚 Si O2 膜满足低损耗光波导器件的要求     

Sol–gel synthesized Titania nanoparticles deposited on porous polycrystalline silicon: Improved carbon dioxide sensor properties

Titania nanoparticles (TNPs) were synthesized by a sol–gel method in our laboratory using titanium tetrachloride as the precursor and isopropanol as the solvent. The particles׳ size distribution histogram was determined using ImageJ software and the size of TNPs was obtained in the range of 7.5–10.5 nm. The nanoparticle with the average size of 8.5 nm was calculated using Scherrer׳s formula. Homogeneous and spherical nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and UV–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis). The X-ray powder diffraction analysis showed that the prepared sample (TNPs) has pure anatase phase. TNPs were deposited on porous polycrystalline silicon (PPS) substrate by electron beam evaporation. The TNPs thickness was 23±2 nm at 10⁻⁵ mbar pressure at room temperature. Porosity was performed by an anodization method. Since polycrystalline silicon wafers consist of different grains with different orientations, the pore size distribution in porous layer is non-uniform [1]. Therefore, the average diameter of pores can be reported in PPS layer analysis. Average diameter of pores was estimated in the range of 5 μm which was characterized by FESEM. The nanostructured thin films devices (Al/Si/PPS/TNPs/Al and Al/Si/PPS/Al) were fabricated in the sandwich form by aluminum (Al) electrodes which were also deposited by electron beam evaporation. Electrical measurements (I–V curves) demonstrated the semiconducting behavior of thin film devices. The gas sensitivity was studied on exposure to 10% CO₂ gas. As a result, conductivity of devices increased on exposure to CO₂ gas. The device with TNPs thin film (Al/Si/PPS/TNPs/Al) was more sensitive and, had better response and reversibility in comparison with the device without TNPs thin film (Al/Si/PPS/Al).     

Room-temperature synthesis of nanocrystalline titanium dioxide via electrochemical anodization

This paper presents a study of the growth of nanoporous anatase and rutile phases of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) subjected to electrochemical anodization at room temperature without post-thermal treatment, using sulfuric acid as the electrolyte. Effects of the applied voltage on the morphological, structural, and photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties were examined. Images from field emission scanning electron microscopy reveal that pore size could be manipulated by changing the anodization voltage. In addition, X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicate that anatase and rutile phases of TiO₂ appeared in samples subjected to minimum anodization voltages of 100 V and 150 V. The Scherrer method was used to calculate the mean crystallite size, and the interplanar d-spacing formula was used to obtain the in-plane and out-of-plane strains. XRD measurements reveal that the amount of anatase and rutile crystallinity and their mean crystallite sizes were affected significantly by the anodization voltage. Results of the PEC studies reveal that the photocurrent density and photoconversion efficiency increased with increasing anodization voltage. In addition, the synthesized nanoporous TiO₂ showed stable photoresponse where only a small decay of photocurrent density is observed in numerous on-to-off illumination cycles.     

Influence of heat treatments and anodization on fatigue life of 2017A alloy

In order to investigate the coupled effects of heat treatments and anodizing processes on fatigue life of aluminium alloy 2017A, a series of fatigue tests were conducted at 25 Hz. The effect of different tempers, naturally and artificially ageing (T4 and T6) and overageing (T7) conditions before sulphuric anodization were studied. Additionally, information on the microstructure of the anodic films was acquired by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses. The image analysis yielded qualitative information on the evolution of the surface morphology as a function of the substrate microstructure. Hence measured mechanical properties were directly related to the corresponding microstructure, the result of fatigue tests showed a decrease in fatigue life of anodized specimens as compared to untreated ones. This phenomenon became more pronounced in the T6 and T7 states. The decrease in the fatigue life could mainly be attributed to the brittle nature of oxide layer and to the heterogeneous microstructure of the film.     

Influence of surface treatments on fatigue life of Al 7010 alloy

The objective of the present work is to show the influence of machining and anodizing processes on fatigue life of alloy 7010-T7451. Two different cutting conditions were employed to obtain two different initial surface roughnesses. Degreasing, pickling and anodizing were then carried out. In the as machined condition, surface roughness is clearly effective in reducing fatigue life in this material. As the surface roughness increases fatigue life decreases and this effect is found to be more pronounced in high cycle fatigue where major portion of fatigue life is consumed in nucleating the cracks. Effects of pre-treatments, like degreasing and pickling employed prior to anodizing, on fatigue life of the given alloy were also studied. Fatigue curves showed that pickling had negative impact on fatigue life of specimens while degreasing showed no change in fatigue life. The small decrease in fatigue life of anodized specimens as compare to pickled specimens is attributed to brittle nature and micro-cracking of the coating. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) examination revealed multi-site crack initiation for the pickled and anodized specimens. SEM examination also showed that pickling process attacked the grain boundaries and the inclusions present on the surface resulting in pits formation. These pits are of primary concern with respect to accelerated fatigue crack nucleation and subsequent anodized coating formation.