Aluminsheathed nanocables with cores consisting of various structures and materials

Filling the pores: A two-layer anodized alumina template consists of two sorts of parallel pores-through-pores and capped-pores. By selectively filling only the through-pores by various techniques, and then wet-chemically etching the walls between the capped-pores, a generic synthetic approach to aluminsheathed nanocables with cores of different structures and materials such as nanowires (see picture) and nanotubes has been developed. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.