The diameter of the nanowires is relatively uniform along

their entire length and equal to the diameter of alumina nanopores (approximately 40 nm). Figure 4e,f represents the tilted images of Co-Ni binary nanowires partially separated from the AAO template. It further verifies the suppression of cape formation over the top surface of Co-Ni binary nanowires. CCI-779 These results show that the most of the nanochannels of alumina are successfully filled with Co-Ni binary nanowires and have continuous morphology without any intermittence contrary to the chain-like CoNi alloy wires [29, 32, 33]. The formation of Co-Ni alloy nanowires has been confirmed using EDX. EDX analysis of Co-Ni binary nanowires [Co(II)/Ni(II) = 80:20] embedded in the AAO template is given in Figure 5. The characteristic peaks in the spectrum are associated with Co, Ni, Al, O, and S. Co and Ni peaks arise from the co-deposited Co-Ni binary nanowires, while O and Al peaks are appearing from the matrix of alumina template, and S peak is due to the use of sulfuric acid as electrolyte for anodization. The quantitative analysis obtained

from EDX analysis is almost close to the concentration ratio of the metallic species in the reaction solution. Figure 6 shows the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of Co-Ni binary nanowires embedded in the AAO template for [Co(II)/Ni(II) = 80:20] system. Both hexagonal

close-packed (hcp) and face-centered cubic (fcc) peaks observed in the XRD pattern MI-503 solubility dmso (JCPDS 05–0727 and 04–0850). Generally, cobalt is stabilized in the hcp structure at room temperature. Kawamori et al. [32] found both Progesterone hcp and fcc phases in the Co-Ni alloy nanoparticles and nanowires prepared using electroless disposition under magnetic field. They further reported that both hcp and fcc phases are the equilibrium phase at Co/Ni = 70:30 (atom%) which is close to our system composition. This result has been further verified from the binary phase diagram of Co-Ni. A mixed structure of hcp and fcc phases has been observed in the binary phase diagram of Co-Ni at Co71Ni29 alloy composition. Interestingly, peaks corresponding to pure Co and Ni have not been observed in the XRD pattern which shows that Co and Ni formed an alloy instead of existing in separate grains. The background noise observed in the XRD pattern originates from the amorphous nature of AAO [34]. Figure 7 shows the typical hysteresis loop of Co-Ni binary nanowires [Co(II)/Ni(II) = 80:20] embedded in the AAO template measured at room temperature at magnetic field of ±10 kOe applied both parallel and perpendicular to the nanowire axis. It can be seen from the figure that the square shape of the loop and widening is more in case when the field was applied parallel to the wire axis compared to the perpendicular direction.