Anodized alumina oxide

Anodic alumina oxides find steadily growing application in various spheres of technology. Traditionally, they are most popular in civil industrial engineering for producing protective and decorative surface finish in panels and different objects. These applications are well reviewed in the literature.321 Anodic alumina is also widely used in the aircraft and aerospace industry for adhesive bonding of aluminum structures,322-324 composite materials, etc. 

An exhaustive study has been carried out recently on the synthesis of BN nanotubes and nanowires by various CVD techniques.17 The methods examined include heating boric acid with activated carbon, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, catalytic iron particles or a mixture of activated carbon and iron particles, in the presence of ammonia. With activated carbon, BN nanowires are obtained as the primary product. However, with multi-walled carbon tubes, high yields of pure BN nanotubes are obtained as the major product. BN nanotubes with different structures were obtained on heating boric acid and iron particles in the presence of NH3. Aligned BN nanotubes are obtained when aligned multi-walled nanotubes are used as the templates (Fig. 40). Prior to this report, alignment of BN nanotubes was achieved by the synthesis of the BN nanotubule composites in the pores of the anodic alumina oxide, by the decomposition of 2,4,6-trichloroborazine at 750 °C.116 Attempts had been made earlier to align BN nanotubes by... 

To get more detail on the light transfer by the anodic alumina oxide film, the light intensity enhancement from a flat white light emitting diode panel was examined. The porous anodic alumina film was placed between LEDs and a detector at a variable LED film distance and the light intensity Laa was... 

Figure 5.8 Scanning electron micrograph [SEM] image of anodic alumina oxide [AAO] membrane. Reprinted with permission from Ref 63. Copyright 2008 American Chemical Society.

Anodic oxidation of valve metals, particularly, aluminum, has attracted considerable attention because of its wide application in various fields of technology. Traditionally, aluminum is anodized in order to protect the metal against corrosion, to improve its abrasion and adsorption properties, etc.1 The more recent and rapidly growing applications of anodic aluminas in electronics are due to their excellent dielectric properties, perfect planarity, and good reproducibility in production. Finally, ways have recently been found to use the energy potential of aluminum oxidation for chemical power sources of the metal-air type2,3 and other electrochemical applications. 

The compact, nonporous anodic alumina film is the most suitable for fundamental investigations. It is grown by anodization, mostly under constant-current (galvanostatic) conditions, in neutral solutions of borates, tartrates, citrates, and phosphates, all of which possess significant buffering capacity and hence do not allow significant dissolution of the oxide. 

Very interesting behavior of incorporating anions can be observed when a multicomponent electrolyte is used for oxide formation. Here, anion antagonism or synergism can be observed, depending on the types of anions used. The antagonism of hydroxyl ions and acid anions has been observed in a number of cases. Konno et a/.181 have observed, in experiments on anodic alumina deterioration and hydration, that small amounts of phosphates and chromates inhibit oxide hydration by forming monolayer or two-layer films of adsorbed anions at the oxide surface. Abd-Rabbo et al.162 have observed preferential incorporation of phosphate anions from a mixture of phosphates and chromates. 

The true role of incorporation of anions in the formation of anodic alumina is being intensively discussed. Baker and Pearson183 have considered the anion effect in modifying the structure of anodic oxides to be due to the coordinative ability of anions to replace alumina tetrahedra in the body of the oxides. Dorsey184,185 has postulated that in porous oxides, anions stabilize the network of alumina tetrahedra and octahedra. 

Specific structural features are observed in the formation of composite oxides. Kobayashi, Shimizu, and their co-workers have, in a series of papers, reported studies of the structure of barrier alumina films, anodically formed on aluminum covered by a thin (5 nm) layer of thermal oxide.198,199 Their experiments have shown that the thermally oxidized thin layer generally contains y- alumina crystals of about 0.2 nm size. This layer does not have a pronounced effect on ionic transport in the oxide during anodization. Also, islands of y -alumina are formed around the middle of anodic barrier oxides. They are nucleated and developed from tiny crystals of y -Al203 and grow rapidly in the lateral direction under prolonged anodization.198,199... 

The y- modification of alumina is the only one reported for anodic aluminum oxide. However, thermodynamic data206 and the results of gravimetric analysis207,208 indicate that a-Al203 is also possible if the oxide is annealed at temperatures of about 1200°C. 

There are also several proposals to use anodic aluminum oxides in producing optoelectronic devices. Porous oxides may find use as antireflecting coatings for optical pathways. Anodic alumina films doped by Eu and Tb are promising for application in electroluminescent cells for TEELs.28... 

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