Preparation of Ideally Ordered Anodic Porous Alumina by Prepatterning Process Using a Flexible Mold

Ideally ordered anodic porous alumina with controlled interpore distances was formed by fabricating a resist mask using a flexible mold and subsequent anodization. Prior to forming the resist pattern on the surface of an Al substrate, Al was pre-anodized at 10 V to prepare the fine porous structure, which acts as a resist adhesive layer. After the formation of the resist mask using a flexible mold, an arranged array of cavities with Al exposed at the bottom was formed by the selective dissolution of the oxide layer at resist openings. The subsequent anodization of the sample with the cavity array generated ideally ordered anodic porous alumina because alumina holes were formed at the bottom of cavities during anodization. This process allows the preparation of ideally ordered anodic porous alumina even on a curved Al surface owing to the flexibility of the mold. In addition, this process can also be applied to the preparation of an ideally ordered anodic porous alumina with a large sample area because the Al substrate can be patterned without high pressure. The obtained sample can be used for various applications requiring an ideally ordered hole array structure.