Tailoring the Ti surface via electropolishing nanopatterning as a route to obtain highly ordered TiO2 nanotubes

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2014

Authors

A. Apolinário (Author) FCUP; C. T. Sousa (Author) FCUP; J. Ventura (Author) FCUP; L. Andrade (Author) FEUP; A. Mendes (Author) FEUP; J. P. Araújo (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Nanotechnology

Vol. 25 No. 48

ISSN: 0957-4484

Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 12 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 11 Citations

INSPEC

Scientific classification

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Engineering > Chemical engineering

FOS: Engineering and technology > Chemical engineering

Associated Projects

BI-DSC - Building Integrated Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

H2Solar - Células fotoelectroquímicas para produção de hidrogénio a partir de energia solar

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-009-Z6N

DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/25/48/485301

Abstract (EN): Highly ordered TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) were synthesized by the electrochemical anodization of Ti foils subjected to electropolishing (EP) pre-treatment. We found that the Ti surface roughness plays an important role in the onset of pore nucleation in enhancing the local focusing effect of the electrical field. Additionally, EP induces the formation of dimple structures on the metal surface, which can work as a pre-pattern prior to anodization. These shallow ripples lead to a preferentially ordered pore nucleation, offering an organizational improvement of the anodic oxide NTs. We found that, depending on the EP applied potential, the roughness and the spatial period of the ripple-like structures varies from 8¿2 nm and from 122¿30 nm, respectively. Such tuning allowed us to focus on the influence of the initial Ti pre-surface topography features on the NTs¿ length, organization, and hexagonal arrangement quality, as well as diameter and density. Our results show that an EP under 10 V is the most suitable to obtain a small Ti surface roughness, the largest NT length (40% enhancement), and the effective improvement of the ordered hexagonal NTs¿ arrays over larger areas. Furthermore, the NTs¿ dimensions (pore diameters and density) were also found to depend on the initial Ti surface topography. The use of optimized EP allows us to obtain highly hexagonal self-ordered samples at a reduced time and cost.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

Notes: Publicação abrangida pelo Journal Citation Reports 2015

No. of pages: 11