Comparative Study on the Electrochemical Synthesis and Magnetic Properties of Ferromagnetic Transition Metals-Palladium Nanowire Arrays

Highly ordered (Fe, Co and Ni)–Pd nanowires arrays have been synthesized by means of electrochemical deposition processes into the pores of nanoporous alumina membranes employed as templates. Nanowires have a diameter about 66 nm, 105 nm of inter-wires distance and length ranging between 500 nm up to around 1 m, depending on the efficiency of the electrochemical deposition process. The Pd content in the alloy for each type of nanowires array has been found to be dependent on the specific ferromagnetic transition metal co-deposited at a fixed electrodeposition current density, due to their different respective standard electrode potentials. In addition, structural characterizations performed at room temperature and magnetic measurements indicate a clear dependence of basic physical parameters of the nanowires studied, such as their microstructure, coercivity, reduced remanence and effective anisotropy field, on both the relative amount of Pd and the kind of ferromagnetic transition metal co-deposited in the resulting alloy. Thermomagnetic ZFC-FC-FH measurements indicate the existence of ferromagnetic shape memory behavior for the arrays of nanowires of the Fe–Pd alloy.