Electrochemical Synthesis of Cu2O Nanowires using Alumina Template

초록

Hexagonally ordered nano-porous alumina template has been extensively used for the fabrication of nanowires and nanotubes materials. Pore diameter of anodic aluminum oxide template is between 50 and 420nm. Partly hydrated anodic aluminum oxide consisting of thin barrier layer and porous layer is formed via the anodization process in an acid electrolyte. The thickness of two layers is strongly dependent of the applied anodization voltage and the regularity of pore distribution depends on the first anodization time. Pore diameter of nano-template and the thickness of barrier layer are linearly increased with specific growth rate of 2.5 nm/V and 1.3 nm/V in oxalic acid, respectively. In this work, highly ordered alumina nano-templates with pore size between 50 and 200 nm were used for the fabrication of conducting cuprous oxide nanowires by electrodeposition technique (i.e., constant current method). We performed morphological and structural analysis of deposited materials; EDS data showed that the atomic concentration ratio of Cu/O of deposited material was about 2 indicating Cu2O nanowires. SEM and TEM images clearly showed compact Cu2O with aspect ratio of 20, i.e., the height of Cu2O wires of ca. 4.0 ?.