Plasma-etched nanopore polymer films and their use as templates to prepare "nano test tubes"

The plasma etch mask concept, which has been used to prepare nanopore carbon anodes for battery applications, has been extended to be used to produce pores in an underlying polymer (photoresist) film. With this modified mask/etch method the distance that the pores propagate into the photoresist film can be controlled by varying the etch time. The thickness of the nanopore layer etched into the surface of the photoresist can be effectively controlled, by controlling the etch time. Such plasma-etched nanopore photoresist films can be used as templates to prepare silica nano test tubes. These polymer-film templates can also be used for both aqueous-based including both acidic and basic solution and organic-based template synthesis, which include most aliphatic alcohols, ketones, and ethers. These films can also be dissolved, when needed, in photoresist remover solution to liberate the nano test tubes synthesized within pores.