Pseudo-monocrystalline properties of cylindrical nanowires confinedly grown by electrodeposition in nanoporous alumina templates

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 7; no. 23; pp. 13817 - 13826
• Main Authors: Barriga-Castro, Enrique Díaz, García, Javier, Mendoza-Reséndez, Raquel, Prida, Víctor M., Luna, Carlos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/C7RA00691H

Four different cylindrical nanowire systems (nickel, cobalt, Co
23
Cu
77
, and multisegmented Co
58
Ni
42
/Co
83
Ni
17
nanowires) with single-crystal-like properties were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) under different tilting angles. Although these nanowires have different chemical compositions, crystalline structures and/or diameters, they exhibit similar behaviors, which are unexpected for ideal single-crystals. All the samples presented SAED patterns that did not experience changes from one zone axis to another when the nanowire was tilted in a wide range of angles, exhibiting related apparent interplanar distances that are dependent on the nanowire inclination, yielding deformed patterns that can be unrecognizable. Moreover, face-centered cubic nanowires presented classically forbidden reflections. These behaviors were explained by considering the characteristics of the measurement technique and the confined template-assisted growth, which force the atoms to be accommodated in a cylindrical volume with nanoscale dimensions, yielding the frustrated formation of stable facets and right angles in the nanowire radial directions, together with the formation of stacking faults.