Structural and electrical properties of an electrolyte-insulator-metal device with variations in the surface area of the anodic aluminum oxide template for pH sensors

Abstract

In this study, we fabricated an electrolyte-insulator-metal (EIM) device incorporating a high-k Al2O3 sensing membrane using a porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) through a two-step anodizing process for pH detection. The structural properties were observed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD). Electrochemical measurements taken consisted of capacitance-voltage (C-V), hysteresis voltage and drift rates. The average pore diameter and depth of the AAO membrane with a pore-widening time of 20 min were 123nm and 273.5nm, respectively. At a pore-widening time of 20 min, the EIM device using anodic aluminum oxide exhibited a high sensitivity (56mV/pH), hysteresis voltage (6.2mV) and drift rate (0.25mV/pH).