Effect of the anodization parameters on TiO2 nanotubes characteristics produced in aqueous electrolytes with CMC

Nanotube structures were produced on the titanium surface by anodization using an aqueous electrolyte composed of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and NaF. The aim of using this kind of the electrolyte is to study the effect of the addition of CMC in the nanotube morphology and organization. To the best of our knowledge, for the first time a comprehensive study about the effect of the anodization parameters on the nanotubes characteristics, using aqueous electrolytes with CMC was reported. The regularity ratio (RR) based on the FFT images was used to measure the nanotube organization. The addition of CMC at the aqueous electrolyte does not affect the packability and increase the nanotube organization in contrast to the nanotubes produced in an aqueous electrolyte without CMC. The nanotubes length was affected by the CMC concentration on the electrolyte, furthermore, the highest nanotube length measured in this work was about 5.85 µm. The internal diameter measured at potentials of 20, 15 and 10 V was about 100, 63 and 48 nm respectively, however, at lower potentials diameters lower than 30 nm were obtained, and the lowest value measured was about 9.5 nm.