Abstract
High aspect ratio Ni nanowires (NWs) and nanotubes (NTs) were electrodeposited inside ordered arrays of self-assembled pores (approximately 50 nm in diameter and approximately 50 μm in length) in anodic alumina templates by a potentiostatic method. The current transients monitored during each process allowed us to distinguish between NW and NT formation. The depositions were long enough for the deposited metal to reach the top of the template and form a continuous Ni film. The overfilling process was found to occur in two steps when depositing NWs and in a single step in the case of NTs. A comparative study of the morphological, structural, and magnetic properties of the Ni NWs and NTs was performed using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and vibrating sample magnetometry, respectively.
Highlights
One-dimensional metallic nanostructured materials have attracted extensive attention in recent years because of their technological importance in nanometer-scale devices and information storage systems [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Prior to top and bottom scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging, ion milling was performed to remove the Au contact at the bottom (1 μm) and the Ni caps on top (5 to 10 μm) and to smoothen the nanoporous alumina templates (NpATs) surface (Figure 2b,c,e,f)
This is because the Ni film overgrown on top will cover some of the pores before they can be completely filled with NTs
Summary
One-dimensional metallic nanostructured materials have attracted extensive attention in recent years because of their technological importance in nanometer-scale devices and information storage systems [1,2,3,4,5,6]. A large number of works have focused on magnetic NWs embedded in ordered arrays of self-assembled pores in alumina membranes [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. Only a few works have been reported on ordered arrays of magnetic NTs [18,19,20,21,22] These novel nanostructures have recently attracted much interest due to their inner functionalizable surfaces that can be used for drug delivery [23,24,25] and owing to their interesting magnetic behavior [20,21,22]. Ni NTs have been prepared in nanoporous membranes by triblock copolymerassisted hard-template method [26], electroplating [27], a sequential electrochemical synthetic method inside conducting polypyrrole NTs [8], and using chemically modified templates [28]
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