Rf glow discharge optical emission spectrometry for the analysis of arrays of Ni nanowires in nanoporous alumina and titania membranes

During the last decade, a great variety of nanostructures (nanotubes, nanofibers or nanowires) based on metals, carbons, polymers or semiconductors, have been synthesized following different synthesis procedures by using nanoporous anodic alumina membranes (AAM) as templates [1]. The principal reason for using templates of nanoporous AAM as precursor patterns lies on the possibility to obtain, under certain experimental conditions, periodic self-organized and highly ordered hexagonally dense packed nanoporous arrays [2]. This fact allows optimizing the performance of the devices so obtained [3]. On the other hand, the fabrication of self-ordered nanotubular titanium dioxide has a great interest for its technological application as a versatile material in photocatalyst, photovoltaic materials, gas sensor, biocompatible materials for bone implants, or spacer materials for magnetic spin valves, among others [4].