Electrochemically and template-synthesized nickel nanorod arrays and nanotubes

Electrodeposition of nickel nanowires and nanotubes using various templates

“…Normally, hollow nanotubes have a tendency to grow in higher current densities. Slow growth with low-current density yield to solid nanorods [2,7,19]. As can be seen in Table 1, in the present study, the effective current density increases with decreasing pore size, which should normally result in nanotubes, not in nanorods.…”

“…The effective current density was increased to 800 mA cm À2 and wall-modifying agent was applied so that nucleation sites on the walls of the pores and nanotubes are produced. It was also shown by other groups that nickel nanotubes can be produced at very low-current densities as long as wall-modifying agents are being used [2,4] (Table 1). However, chemical modification of the inner walls of the template introduces impurities to the system [2].…”

“…Previous studies suggest that nanotube growth is possible with a chemical modification of the inner surface of the pores prior to deposition [2,4]. In this study, nickel hollow tubes were grown in polycarbonate membranes with 1000 nm pore size applying a 10 mA cm À2 current density without any chemical modification.…”

“…In order to eliminate the effect of nonconducting nonporous membrane area on current density, we calculated the effective current densities based on pore density and pore diameter. It is interesting to note that Xue et al [2] obtained nanotubes in polycarbonate membranes by using pore-wall-modifying agents and increasing the voltage, and not by decreasing the deposition time (Table 1). They obtained nickel nanowires when 12 mA cm À2 effective current density was applied.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Several studies have been performed to produce metal nanowires in templates since the size and the shape of the nanowires can be controlled easily and accurately [8].…”