Cobalt and Nickel Nanopillars on Aluminium Substrates by Direct Current Electrodeposition Process

A fast and cost-effective technique is applied for fabricating cobalt and nickel nanopillars on aluminium substrates. By applying an electrochemical process, the aluminium oxide barrier layer is removed from the pore bottom tips of nanoporous anodic alumina templates. So, cobalt and nickel nanopillars are fabricated into these templates by DC electrodeposition. The resulting nanostructure remains on the aluminium substrate. In this way, this method could be used to fabricate a wide range of nanostructures which could be integrated in new nanodevices

Ordered Mesostructured CdS Nanowire Arrays with Rectifying Properties

Highly ordered mesoporous CdS nanowire arrays were synthesized by using mesoporous silica as hard template and cadmium xanthate (CdR2) as a single precursor. Upon etching silica, mesoporous CdS nanowire arrays were produced with a yield as high as 93 wt%. The nanowire arrays were characterized by XRD, N2adsorption, TEM, and SEM. The results show that the CdS products replicated from the mesoporous silica SBA-15 hard template possess highly ordered hexagonal mesostructure and fiber-like morphology, analogous to the mother template. The current–voltage characteristics of CdS nanoarrays are strongly nonlinear and asymmetrical, showing rectifying diode-like behavior