Summary: | Although anodization is an essential technology that has supported the aluminum industry for nearly a century, the atomistic structure of the formed alumina films has not completely understood. Here we used NMR spectroscopy to clarify the factors affecting local structure of anodic porous alumina films prepared under various electrolytic conditions. For anion-free amorphous alumina films prepared using chromic acid, the local structure does not depend on electrolytic factors. For films prepared using phosphoric acid, the average coordination number was lower than that of anion-free alumina. On the other hand, films prepared using oxalic and sulfuric acids showed the average coordination numbers higher than that of anion-free alumina. We reveal that aluminum coordination number of anodic porous alumina are affected by anion species and anion content. In addition, the depth of anion incorporation into cell walls, or compositional uniformity, is quite important for accurate interpretation of NMR spectra.
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