Effect of Barrier Layer on Fabrication of FePt Nanowires by Electrodeposition into Nanoporous Alumina Templates

Abstract

It is well known that the nanoporous aluminum oxide film is an electrical insulator. In addition the homogeneity of electrodeposited nanowire arrays in nanoporous alumina templates increases drastically with the usage of AC electrodeposition in comparison to DC electrodeposition. This is revealing of the effect of dielectric properties of alumina that is used as template for electrodeposition. In this work integrated nanowire arrays of FePt alloys were successfully fabricated by alternating current electrodeposition on nanoporous alumina; also we characterize the nanoporous alumina membrane that is used as a template for FePt nanowire electrodeposition using EIS allowing the electrochemical impedance contributions from the barrier layer, nanoporous structure, and electrolyte solution resistance to be calculated through the use of an equivalent circuit model. The impedance spectra of the porous film prepared under different anodization conditions were measured. The data is attained at open circuit potential over a frequency range between 1 Hz to 100 KHz with an AC potential amplitude of 10 mV. As our result demonstrates the resistance of the bariyer layer decreases with the anodization temperature then the electrochemical process of FePt nanowires at template which fabricated on low anodization temperature will be difficult due to the higher resistance.