In this paper, electrical properties and direct current (DC) electrodeposition characteristics of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) grown on high purity Al and a commercial purity Al (1090 Al) were investigated. The Mott-Schottky analysis and the rectification effect suggested the n-type semiconductivity for the barrier layer of anodic film grown on 1090 Al. When DC electrodeposition was performed on the anodic film, only the nickel clusters can be found on the surface for high purity Al, while the smooth nickel covering layer can form on the surface for 1090 Al due to the semiconductivity of the barrier layer. The self-supported nickel nanowires with high filling ratio can be obtained by DC electrodeposition on 24h-anodized AAO template grown on 1090 Al. (C) 2015 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.