Formation of self-assembled stripes on the anodic aluminum oxide

Abstract

Non-polished aluminum sheets were anodized and the coexistence of self-assembled stripes and porous arrays on the Al surface was observed. The nanostructures were investigated in details using an atomic force microscope. And the formation mechanism of the stripes was discussed and simulated using Brusselator model in this work. We demonstrated that the self-assembled patterns on the Al surface were governed by the competition of formation and dissolution of alumina film during the reaction process. Moreover, this type of ordered structure could only form in certain conditions.