Crystallographically-oriented single-crystalline copper nanowire arrays electrochemically grown into nanoporous anodic alumina templates

Highly crystallographically-oriented single-crystalline copper nanowire arrays were electrochemically deposited into nanoporous commercial alumina templates. A gold/copper backward contact was needed in the template, while the nanowires were grown from a 0.5 M CuSO4·5H2O solution adjusted to pH=1. The kinetics of the growing process is studied by means of current vs. time curves. The pore filling is between 80 to 90%. The structure and morphology of the wires are studied by XRD, SEM and TEM. The wires have an average diameter of 150 nm corresponding to the pore diameter of the template, with the cubic face-centered copper structure. This structure is highly oriented along the [100] direction parallel to the wire axis. The preferential growing along this direction was not previously found in the literature, which may have interesting applications when such direction is required.