Preparation and characterization of La-Co alloy nanowire arrays by electrodeposition in AAO template under nonaqueous system

La-Co alloy nanowires can be made in pulse reversal current(PRC) and direct current(DC) electrodepositions under nonaqueous system, with the porous anodic aluminum oxide(AAO) as template. This membrane is subject to the dual-oxidation (two-step) anodizing. Scanning electron microscope(SEM) examination shows that all of the nanowires have uniform diameter about 200 nm, and their diameters are determined by the pore diameter of applied AAO template. X-ray energy dispersion analysis indicates that the chemical composition of La and Co elements is very close to 1:2 in stoichiometry. X-ray diffraction pattern investigation demonstrates that La-Co nanowire is the face-centered cubic(FCC) LaCo13.