Study on the Growth Mechanism of the Polymer Nanotube Arrays by Its Controlled Growth in Anodic Aluminum Oxide Template

摘要

The intermediate state of the polymer nanotube arrays growth process by polymer solution and melt wetting anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template was observed creatively using a wax seal method to directly control growth time. The side views of the height and wall thickness of polymer nanotubes were investigated by SEM and TEM respectively. Taking a weighted average of the data, the related calculations indicated that the growth mechanism of solution wetting was neither the capillary action infiltration nor fully conform to the precursor film wetting. But melt wetting met the capillary action infiltration. Two-step growth mechanism was proposed which was suitable for both the complete wetting and partial wetting. The first step is the vertical growth, formation of the precursor film, the second step is the horizontal growth, the increase of the wall thickness. The whole growth process of the polymer nanotube was driven by "Marangoni flow." Combining the precursor film wetting and the capillary action infiltration, the great difference between the two kinds of growth mechanism can be explained uniformly.