Electrochemical synthesis of multisegmented nanowires

Electrochemical deposition has emerged as a promising route for nanostructure fabrication in recent years due to the many inherent advantages it possesses. This study focuses on the synthesis of high-aspect-ratio multisegmented Au/Ni nanowires using template-directed sequential electrochemical deposition techniques. By selectively removing the Ni segments in the nanowires, high-yield of pure gold nanorods of predetermined lengths was obtained. Alternatively, the sacrificial Ni segments in the nanowires can be galvanically displaced with Bi and Te to form barbells structures with Bi{sub x}Te{sub y} nanotubes attached to neighbouring gold segments. Detailed studies on the nanostructures obtained were carried out using various microscopy, diffraction and probebased techniques for structural, morphological and chemical characterizations.