Controlled synthesis of highly ordered CuO nanowire arrays by template-based sol-gel route

The highly ordered CuO nanowire arrays of composite-oxides were synthesized within a porous anodic aluminum oxide(AAO) template by a citrate-based sol-gel route. A vacuum system was applied to draw the gel into the template pores, which conquers the only driving force of this technique—capillary action, then the gel was thermally treated to prepare desired CuO nanowires. The results of scanning electron microscopy(SEM) indicate that the CuO nanowires are very uniformly assembled and parallel to each other in the pores of the anodic aluminum oxide(AAO) template membranes. The results of X-ray diffraction(XRD) and the selected-area electron diffraction(SAED) indicate that the CuO nanowires are monoclinic-type crystalline structure. Furthermore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) demonstrates that the stoichiometric CuO is formed.