Autocatalytic redox fabrication and magnetic studies of Co-Ni-P alloy nanowire arrays

Uniform and large-scale Co-Ni-P alloy nanowire arrays have been fabricated by autocatalytic redox reaction in an anodic alumina membrane (AAM). The images of Co-Ni-P alloy nanowire arrays and single nanowires are obtained by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM), respectively. Selected area electron diffraction (SAED), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectra (EDS) are employed to study the morphology and chemical composition of the nanowires. The results indicate that the Co-Ni-P nanowire arrays are amorphous in structure. The magnetic property of Co-Ni-P nanowire arrays is characterized using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The hysteresis loops show that the easily magnetized direction of Co-Ni-P nanowire arrays is parallel to the nanowire arrays and that it has obvious magnetic anisotropy as a result of the shape anisotropy.