Synthesis and Characterization of CoCu and NiCu Alloy Nanowires

In this work, NiCu and CoCu alloy nanowires were prepared by electrodeposition within nuclear track-etched polycarbonate membranes with the nominal diameter of 30nm. Electrodeposition was carried out under potentiostatic control with three electrodes. In order to grow CoCu nanowires and NiCu nanowires, an electrolyte containing salts of Co and Cu, and an electrolyte containing the salts of Ni and Cu were used respectively. Then, the potentiodynamic behavior of each electrolyte was investigated by its CV curves, and the optimum potentials for the deposition of Ni, Co and Cu were selected according to these curves. A TEM microscope was used to study the structure of the nanowires. The results showed that the crystalline growth is polycrystalline and the diameter of the wires is about 80 nm. Apart from that, some nanowires were deposited under different deposition voltages. EDX analysis showed that the atomic weight of Ni and Co in all samples vanishes in the potentials between -0.5V to -0.8V which indicates that pure Cu atoms are deposited at these voltages. Deposition of Ni and Co starts at more negativevoltages such as -0.9 and -0.85 V, respectively.