분리막(Separation membrane)을 이용하여 기체 또는 액체상태로 존재하는 분자들을 선택적으로 분리하는 기술은 화학, 생물, 제약, 석유화학 등의 산업에서 매우 다양하게 응용되고 있으며 산업적으로 매우 큰 비중을 차지하고 있다. Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) 막은 nanochannel의 직경, nanochannel 간의 거리 및 원통형 nanochannel의 길이 등을 정밀하게 조절 할 수 있어 AAO 막을 이용하여 혼합분자를 효과적으로 분리하려는 다양한 연구가 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 양 말단이 열려있어 through-hole 구조로 다양한 직경의 nanochannel을 가지는 AAO 막을 제작하였으며, 이것을 이용하여 용매에 녹아 있는 고분자 사슬의 수력학적 부피에 따른 선택적 투과를 관찰하였다. Nanochannel을 투과한 고분자 사슬의 회전반지름과 nanochannel의 직경 사이에 정량적인 관계가 있음을 확인하였다. 또한 AAO 막의 nanochannel을 흐르는 고분자 용액의 유동 률(flow rate)이 Hagen-Poiseuille 관계식으로 정확하게 설명될 수 있음을 확인하여 AAO 내에 존재하는 원통형태의 nanochannel 내에서 흐르는 용액의 나노흐름(nanoflow)에 대한 이론적 해석이 가능함을 증명하였다.

Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) has been widely used for the development and fabrication of nano-powder with various morphologies such as particle, wire, rod, and tube. So far, many researchers have reported about shape control and fabrication of AAO films. However, they have reported on the shape control with different diameter and length of anodic aluminum oxide mainly. We present a combined mild-hard (or hard-mild) anodization to prepare shape-controlled AAO films. Two main parameters which are combination mild-hard (or hard-mild) anodization and run-time of voltage control are applied in this work. The voltages of mild and hard anodization are respectively 40 and 80 V. Anodization was conducted on the aluminum sheet in 0.3 mole oxalic acid at 4oC. AAO films with morphologies of varying interpore distance, branch-shaped pore, diameter-modulated pore and long funnel-shaped pore were fabricated. Those shapes will be able to apply to fabricate novel nano-materials with potential application which is especially a support to prevent volume expansion of inserted active materials, such as metal silicon or tin powder, in lithium ion battery. The silicon powder electrode using an AAO as a support shows outstanding cycle performance as 1003 mAh/g up to 200 cycles.

Vertically oriented nickel nanowire arrays with a different diameter and length are synthesized in porous anodic aluminium oxide templates by an electrodeposition method. The pore diameters of the templates are adjusted by controlling the anodization conditions and then they are utilized as templates to grow nickel nanowire arrays. The nickel nanowires have the average diameters of approximately 25 and 260 nm and the crystal structure, morphology and microstructure of the nanowires are systematically investigated using XRD, FE-SEM and TEM analysis. The nickel nanowire arrays show a magnetic anisotropy with the easy axis parallel to the nanowires and the coercivity and remanence enhance with decreasing a wire diameter and increasing a wire length.

Ni nanowires were fabricated using anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane as a template by electrochemical deposition. The nanowires were formed within the walls of AAO template with 200 nm in pore diameter. After researching proper voltage and temperature for electrochemical deposition, the length of Ni nanowires was controlled by deposition time and the supply of electrolyte. The morphology and microstructure of Ni nanowires were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SE), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM).