American Chemical Society, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 18(50), p. 10883-10888, 2011
DOI: 10.1021/ie200826x
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Porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates have been demonstrated to be an easy way to prepare one-dimensional polymeric nanostructures by polymer infiltration into the nanopores. The opportunity to reuse the AAO templates significantly reduces the cost and time of production. Through treatment of infiltrated polyethylene oxide (PEO) into AAO templates at 450 °C, we were able to remove the entire polymer from the pores of templates. The completely elimination of PEO is confirmed by confocal Raman spectroscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffractometry (WAXD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). This methodology can have wider application, since the adhesion coefficient is not as an important issue as it was in mechanical methods reported in the literature, and, therefore, it reduces cost and time significantly.