Formation of ideally ordered porous anodic zirconia by anodization of vacuum deposited Zr on molds

We studied the formation of ideally ordered nanoporous zirconia by anodizing Zr having a texturing pattern. A texturing pattern was formed on a Zr surface by peeling off a sputtered zirconium film from a metal (Ni) mold having an ordered array of convexes. In contrast to texturing by nanoimprinting, the present texturing process never requires the pressing of a mold onto the Zr surface. During the anodization of Zr that has a texturing pattern on its surface, which is an ideally ordered array of concaves, each concave acted as a starting point of the formation of nanoholes. By the present process, porous anodic zirconia having an ideally ordered array of nanoholes was obtained. The interval between nanoholes in the porous anodic zirconia agreed with the texturing pattern.