Multigram synthesis of copper nanowires using ac electrodeposition into porous aluminium oxide templates

Abstract

Multigram quantities of Cu nanowires ca. 25 nm in diameter and mm in length have been produced by AC electrodeposition into porous aluminium oxide (PAO) templates. Multiple, large-area Al electrodes (5 6 11 cm or 10 6 25 cm) are anodized in parallel at 25.0 V in 0.3 M H 2 SO 4 (aq) using custom built baths. The pores are efficiently filled by applying 200 Hz sine waves at 10 V rms between the anodized Al and Cu plate counter electrodes immersed in a 0.50 M CuSO 4 (aq) solution. Dissolution of the PAO template in 0.6 M H 3 PO 4 to free the Cu nanowires results in significant coarsening of the nanowires, whereas dissolution of the PAO template in 1.0 M NaOH(aq) results in retention of the Cu nanowire diameters corresponding to the pore diameter of the PAO template. Liberated Cu nanowires were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

Low Electrical Percolation Threshold of Silver and Copper Nanowires in Polystyrene Composites

“…[43] In a short communication, the preparation of polymer nanocomposites using copper nanowires by solution processing was reported, and the electrical percolation was found to be close to 2 vol % of nanowires. [44] However, at that time, instrumental limitations prevented the accurate measurement of the resistivity of the low-volumefraction specimens.…”

Fabrication of Y-junction Metal Nanowires by AAO Template-assisted AC Electrodeposition

“…Metal nanowires (NWs) have attracted vigorous research interests in recent years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Among the numerous synthesis methods studied so far, fabrication inside rationally designed anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates has been proved to be an economic and versatile method to produce nanostructures with great efficiency and precision [2][3][4].…”

“…The AAO templates have many desirable characteristics such as a narrowly distributed pore size which can be tuned within a wide range, a well-developed fabrication process, easiness to remove, good mechanical and thermal stability, and chemical inertness. Since the pioneer work by T. M. Whitney [5], AAO template-assisted fabrication has achieved great success in the synthesis of linear metal nanowires [2][3][4][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Particularly, in applications such as nanoelectronics where nanowires with more complicated structure, such as Y-junction or branched NWs, are desirable, AAO template-assisted fabrication offers a simple and efficient method for the preparation of Y-junction metal NWs.…”

“…A typical synthesis process by DC electrodeposition is as following: firstly, the AAO templates are separated from the Al substrate; after the removal of the barrier layer, the templates are coated with a thin layer of noble metal to make an electrode; then target metal is deposited into the templates by DC electrodeposition. While AC electrodeposition has been proven to be a simple method to fabricate linear metal nanowires [6][7][8][9][10][11], using AC electro- A schematic of the synthesis steps is shown in Fig. 1.…”

“…Gelves's work [10,11]. DOI:10.3786/nml.v2i4.p290-295 http://www.nmletters.org dimensional nucleation/growth [29,30].…”