(167b) Uniform Thinning of Cu-Fe-Ni-Co Nanowires and Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulation

A novel procedure for thinning Cu-rich alloy nanowires is presented and described by a kinetic Monte Carlo simulation. Template-assisted electrodeposited Fe-Ni-Co nanowires were generated by pulse current deposition, followed by an acid, copper ion treatment to facilitate a displacement and simultaneous corrosion reaction within the nanowire. The resulting Cu-Fe-Ni-Co alloy nanowire exhibited interesting etching behavior, where the wire was uniformly thinned to dimension ten times thinner than the original wire diameter. Simulations suggest that the thinning behavior is a consequence of the alloy structure and that pure copper nanowires would break before they reach the same thinned diameter. A reconstruction of the local porous structure during etching was one of the primary reasons that etching of Cu-Fe-Ni-Co nanowires leads to a thinning effect without breakage.