Theses and Dissertations Collection

Growth of metal/oxide nanowires inside of semiconducting nanotubes has several applications for energy storage and energy conversion. In this study, growth of copper/copper oxide through electrodeposition techniques was studied as a method to fill TiO₂ nanotube arrays. Specifically, emphasis was placed on the study of copper containing electrolyte solution kinetics. This was necessary due to the differences between TiO₂ and anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) as the substrate. AAO has been well-studied and successfully filled with metal/oxide nanowires. The difficulty with TiO₂ is that unlike AAO it is not an insulator; this makes electrodeposition of the copper difficult as it is not inherently attracted to the bottom of the nanotubes. Another area of study was the morphology of the TiO₂ substrate. Through different anodization techniques a new self-ordered morphology of TiO₂, called Super Honeycomb was discovered. Applications of the Super Honeycomb nanostructure as well as a similar process on Ti-Mn alloy are reported.