| dc.description.abstract | The anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) have been widely used as templates in nanotechnology. Due to their characteristic continuous, highly ordered pore structures, they have been utilized extensively in the fabrication of nanomaterials leading to various applications, such as separating, antireflection coating, and a template for synthesis of various nanostructures. To fabricate thin AAO templates with well-ordered nanopore arrays, a variety of patterning techniques have been developed. However, the low processing speed, high-cost, and operational complexity make them challenging to use. In this study, we propose a high throughput and low-cost nanopatterning approach to fabricate thin AAO templates, which is based on the nanosphere lithography with one-step anodization process. The pore diameter and inter-pore spacing can be readily controlled by adjusting the diameter of the nanospheres and the anodic etching conditions. In addition, copper metal nanowires and nanotubes are widely used in optoelectronic devices, field emission, catalyst catalysis and hydrogen evolution reaction due to their well-ordered and high surface area. However, how to accurately control the size, shape and periodicity of the prepared one-dimensional copper nanostructure has been a challenge. Herein we report a novel way to fabricate high filling, large-area, and uniform copper metal nanowires and nanotubes arrays by nanosphere lithography combined with electrochemical deposition technology. In addition, the copper metal nanotubes owing to their well-ordered arrangement, high aspect ratio, and hollow structure, exhibit excellent field-emission properties with a very low turn-on field. The obtained results present the exciting prospect that the new approach proposed here will provide the capability to fabricate well-ordered arrays of copper metal nanotubes-based field emitters. | en_US |