This
paper reports an experimental and theoretical analysis of
preferential orientation growth of metallic nanowires during electrochemical
deposition using nanochanneled templates. In this work pure Co nanowire
arrays were synthesized by electrochemical deposition using porous
anodized aluminum oxide templates. The nanowire arrays are found to
exhibit near complete preferential single axial orientation. The preferential
orientation changed with increasing the applied voltage from [0002]hcp, [101̅0]hcp, [12̅10]hcp to [110]fcc. The observation is explained in terms of
nucleation thermodynamics and crystal growth kinetics. The analysis
demonstrates that at low applied voltages, when the wire growth is
slow, the wire orientation is dictated by the criterion of minimum
total surface energy, with the close-packed surfaces forming the external
facets of the crystals. At high applied voltages, when the wire growth
is fast, the crystal axial orientation is dictated by the growth kinetics,
i.e., directions of the fastest growth velocity. These criteria also
apply well to the preferential growth of fcc metal nanowires during
electrochemical deposition, e.g., Ag, Au, Cu, and Ni.