ELECTRODEPOSITION OF COPPER NANOWIRES IN POROUS POLYCARBONATE MEMBRANES

Copper nanowires of diameter 50 nm have been synthesized by electrochemical deposition in a nanoporous polycarbonate template. These membranes were created by ion irradiation of 30 μm thick polycarbonate foils at UNILAC accelerator of GSI, Germany. Subsequent chemical etching of these foils were carried out in PINSTECH using 6M NaOH solution at 50 oC. A thin Cu layer on one side of these membranes, deposited by thermal evaporation, acted as cathode. A Cu rod was used as anode and the deposition was carried out potentiostatically at room temperature in a two electrode electrochemical cell. Subsequent to fabrication, the wires were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-Visible spectroscopy.