Conductive microemulsions for template CoNi electrodeposition

Abstract

Microemulsions have been revealed as feasible templates to grow magnetic nanostructures using an electrodeposition method. Reducing agents are not required and the applied potential has been used as driving force of the nanostructure growth. A systematic study of conductive microemulsion systems to allow the CoNi electrodeposition process has been performed. Different surfactants and organic components have been tested to form microemulsions with a CoNi electrolytic bath as an aqueous component in order to define the microemulsions showing enough conductivity to perform an electrodeposition process from the aqueous component. By using microemulsions of the aqueous electrolyte solution–Triton X-100–diisopropyl adipate system, CoNi electrodeposition has been achieved, the structure of the deposits being dependent on the composition and structure of the microemulsion, which can act as a soft-template to obtain different discontinuous deposits. The magnetic properties of the CoNi deposits vary with their structure.