  Template-assisted synthesis is a facile way of growing various
one-dimensional nanostructures. Among various nanoporous templates, anodic
aluminium oxide (AAO) is most commonly used. In this work, the kinetics of
silver nanowire growth by electrodeposition in AAO templates was investigated.
The AAO templates were fabricated using the standard two-step anodisation
process. The geometrical features of the fabricated templates, such as pore
diameter (55 nm), interpore distance (115 nm), wall thickness (27 nm), porosity
(19.87 %), and pore density were obtained using scanning electron microscopy.
The oxide layer at the bottom of the pores was modified by the barrier layer
thinning process and chemical etching in order to facilitate uniform metal
deposition. This was followed by pore widening to increase the diameter of the
pores to 65 nm to enhance deposition. Interpore distance increased to 119.8 nm
and wall thickness remained almost constant at 27.7 nm. Silver was deposited
using conventional electrodeposition in constant current mode. Deposition
parameters such as time, current, solution concentration, and temperature were
systematically investigated. For each deposition, the efficiency of the process
was calculated by considering the filling fraction of the pores and the average
length of the wires, all of which were measured from the SEM images. A linear
growth versus time was observed within the parameter range. From the
experiments, it was observed that decreasing the current, increasing the
deposition temperature, and depositing for longer duration increased the
average length of the nanowires. The use of electrodeposition to grow metallic
nanowires can be extended to other pure metal and alloy systems.
