Molten o-H3PO4 - A New Electrolyte for the Anodic Synthesis of Self-Organized Oxide Structures: WO3 Nanochannel Layers and Others

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that molten o-H3PO4 can be used as an effective electrolyte to produce self-organized oxide nanostructures on metals like tungsten, enabling new fabrication possibilities for nanochannels and nanotubes.

Contribution

It introduces molten o-H3PO4 as a novel electrolyte for self-organized electrochemical synthesis of oxide nanostructures on metals such as tungsten.

Findings

Successful fabrication of tungsten oxide nanochannel layers

Pore diameter of approximately 10 nm achieved

Potential applications demonstrated for the nanochannels

Abstract

We introduce the use of pure molten ortho-phosphoric acid (o-H3PO4) as an electrolyte for selforganizing electrochemistry. This electrolyte allows for the formation of self-organized oxide architectures (one-dimensional nanotubes, nanochannels, nanopores) on metals such as tungsten that up to now were regarded as very difficult to grow self-ordered anodic oxide structures. In this work, we show particularly the fabrication of thick, vertically aligned tungsten oxide nanochannel layers, with pore diameter of ca. 10 nm, and illustrate their potential use in some typical applications.