Anodic aluminum oxide was formed by employing mild and hard anodizing in sulfuric acid followed by mild anodizing in oxalic acid without oxide removal in-between at 40 and 45 V. Such multi-step anodizing, combining hard anodizing in sulfuric acid with mild anodizing in oxalic acid allowed to form a highly-ordered nanoporous template with a barrier layer at the pore bottoms thin enough for further processing. Four different conditions of electrochemical barrier layer thinning, with varied voltage steps and their time durations, were investigated. Optimized conditions allowed to provide conductivity at the pore bottoms and made the nanoporous oxide templates suitable for electrodeposition. It was found that the most effective barrier layer thinning approach employs voltage steps Un+1 = 0.75. Un with each step (n) being 10 s long. To check applicability of the formed templates, copper electrodeposition from sulfate-borate bath was done. Copper nanowires with average length of about 14-16 m and diameter of about 35-40 nm were obtained by using through-hole AAO templates.

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A crucial factor of a nitriding process of treated parts is surface roughness. Eight samples of 42CrMo4 steel were used to investigate the parameter represented by Ra. In the study, the innovative combined microhardness profiles were used to present results within the compound zone and diffusion layer. Therefore, two loads were applied in the compound zone, 5 gf, and diffusion layer, 500 gf. Observation with SEM and chemical analysis of the investigated samples showed a correlation between microstructure, nitrogen concentration and microhardness of the compound zone. XRD diffraction was used to identify the phase composition. Moreover, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy technique was also applied in the study. No distinct correlations between compound zone morphology and the Ra parameter were observed. The thickness value of the structure was constant and fluctuated around 20 µm in the vast majority of the examined cases. However, analysis of the results revealed a dependence between the Ra parameter and diffusion layer thickness. The values of this parameter varied in the range of 356–394 µm depending on the Ra parameter. A distinct nitrided layer was observed on the polished sample.