Aluminum Oxide Template and Titanium Oxide Nanotubes and their Applications

Abstract

In this thesis, aluminum oxide template and titanium oxide nanotube were fabricated by anodization method. With the aid of anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) template, three different magnetic nanostructures have been fabricated: (1) ferromagnetic CoFe2 nanowires electrodeposited into the pores of AAO template using AC voltage, (2) ferromagnetic CoAlO antidot arrays deposited on top of AAO template by co-sputtering AlO and Co targets and (3) exchange bias coupled multilayered FeNi/FeMn antidot arrays deposited on top of AAO template by sputtering FeNi and FeMn targets in an alternating manner. Geometrical factors of these magnetic nanostrutures on their magnetic properties were investigated: (1) the effect of the length on the coercivities of the CoFe2 nanowires, (2) the effect of pore size and thickness of the CoAlO antidot on its magnetic and transport properties and (3) the effect of the pore size and thickness of FeNi on the exchanged bias and ferromagentic resonance properties of the FeNi/FeMn antidot array. We fabricated two different TiO2 nanotube structures and attempted to study the feasibility of using the TiO2 nanotube array as hybrid photovoltaic when combined with P3HT polymer. The first type of TiO2 nanotube structure was formed via direct anodization of titanium foil and P3HT polymer was infiltrated into pores of such TiO2 nanotubes by dip coating method. Extend of the polymer infilitration into the TiO2 nanotubes was investigated.We also anodized Ti film sputtered directly on top of the ITO glass to form transparent TiO2 nanotube arrays.