The effect of barrier layer conditions on the electrodeposition efficiency and magnetic properties of Fe nanowire arrays

Fabrication of different nanostructures based on template-assisted methods has become conventional, due to their numerous potential applications. In this paper, Fe nanowire arrays (NWAs) were fabricated using a pulsed electrodeposition in porous anodic alumina (PAA) templates. The effect of alumina barrier layer conditions such as barrier layer temperature (BLT) and Cu pre-plating at the dendritic sections of pores on the electrodeposition efficiency (EE) and magnetic properties of Fe NWAs in two pH regimes (2.6 and 4.0) has been investigated. At pH 4.0, BLT was changed from ~ 4 to ~ 32 °C, leading to an EE of approximately 60% for BLT ~ 24 °C. Moreover, to overcome the problem of low EE ~ 2% at the pH of 2.6, Cu pre-plating was performed with deposition current densities of 25 and 35 mA/cm². This procedure increased the EE up to about 40%, providing a promising approach to enhance …