A preliminary study on the synthesis and characterization of multilayered Ag/Co magnetic nanowires fabricated via the electrodeposition method.

A single-bath electrodeposition method was developed to integrate multilayer Ag/Co nanowires with a commercial anodic alumina oxide (AAO) template with a pore diameter of 100-200 nm. An electrolyte system containing silver nitride and cobalt sulfide was studied using cyclic voltammetry, and the electrodeposition rate was varied to optimize the electrodeposition conditions. A constant stepwise potential and a variable cation ratio of [Co²⁺]/[Ag⁺] were used during electrodeposition. After the dissolution of the template in aqueous NaOH solution, multilayered Ag/Co nanowires were obtained with a composition of [Co]/[Ag₈₀Co₂₀], as identified by XRD and TEM, when [Co²⁺]/[Ag⁺] = 150. By annealing at 200°C for 1 h, uniformly structured (Co₉₉.₅₇/Ag₁₀₀) nanowires were obtained. Compared with pure Co nanowires, the magnetic hysteresis loops showed a greater magnetic anisotropy for (Co₉₉.₅₇/Ag₁₀₀) nanowires than for pure Co nanowires, corresponding to a change in the easy axis upon magnetization.