Growth of the nickel nanorod arrays fabricated using electrochemical deposition on anodized Al templates

It has long been problematic to remove the oxide barrier layer between the template nanopores and the aluminum base in the electrochemical deposition of metallic nanorods into the anodic aluminum oxide template. A novel method has been developed to solve this problem by simply reducing the voltage in a stepwise method in the anodation process. Using the developed method, we have been able to obtain ordered nickel nanorod arrays with regular rods of controllable sizes. Mechanism of the growth was discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.