Gold nanowires prepared by template synthesis method

We prepared highly ordered porous aluminum anoxic oxide (AAO) templates containing uniform nanoscale pores. Gold nanowires with lengths up to 2 similar to 3 mu m and diameter as short as 15 nm were fabricated by ac electrodeposition of gold into the uniform templates. The templates and nanowires were characterized by Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), the diameter of the resulted nanowires was determined by the pore size of the AAO templates, and their length was in proportional to the deposition time. It was also found that the nanowires were composed df many small single crystals and could be as thin as the diameter of one single crystal if the pore size of the template was small enough.