Examination of Silver Nanoparticle Fabrication by Pulsed-Laser Ablation of Flakes in Primary Alcohols

Abstract

This paper describes the formation and subsequent behavior of silver nanoparticles (NPs) observed by optical spectra, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy in primary alcohols by nanosecond pulsed-laser irradiation (1064 and 532 nm, typically at 1 J/(cm 2 pulse)) of silver flakes. Effects of the carbon chain length of the solvents and the irradiation atmosphere of the solutions on the Ag NP formation were investigated. The effect of alcohol chain length in aerated solutions can be described as follows: (1) in shortchain alcohols such as methanol and ethanol, the NPs are extremely unstable and easily settled down to form precipitates by centrifugation treatment; (2) very stable NPs are formed with an appreciably smaller particle size distribution in alcohols with chain lengths from C-3 to C-5 than in alcohols with longer chain length than C-5; (3) the yield of NPs is dependent on the alcohol chain length. On the other hand, the yield of NPs is greater in Ar-and N 2 -saturated solutions than in aerated solutions. Additionally, the yield is similar regardless of the chain length, with smaller size distributions than those in air-equilibrated solutions. Oxygen molecules dissolved in the solvents are responsible for these observations. The oxygen effect consists of two parts: (1) the scavenging of electrons generated by the plasma formation and thermionic emission due to extremely high temperature under the ablation condition; (2) the formation of an oxide layer on the surface of particles that hampers further growth processes to form NPs. Furthermore, we observed the formation of string segments in evacuated ethanol due to coagulation and coalescence of bare metal particles, giving rise to the splitting of the plasmon band. Thus we demonstrated that the systematic change in the solvent and irradiation atmosphere can control the particle size and size distribution. The present findings may add a new aspect to better manipulate NP fabrication based upon the laser ablation method.

Semiconductor-nanoparticle-donor nanochemical composites: Properties and applications as energy sources of the future

“…The development of nano technology broadened the frontiers of fundamental and applied investigations in the field of nanomaterials science. Metallic and islet films, aerosols, hydrosols, and gels of diverse metals were studied: M = Au, Ag, Cu, Pt, Pd, Sn, Zn, Pb, Fe, Al, Rh, Ir, Hg, As, B, In, and Ga [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The properties of nanomaterials depend on their size and shape (spherical nanoparti cles, nanowires, thin metallic films), distances between atoms, charges of atomic cores, and nature of protective organic shells [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30].…”

“…However, in the new field of quantum nanochemistry, there is still a large number of unsolved problems. For example, the authors of many papers [12][13][14] stress that the properties of nanomaterials differ from those of either metals or atoms, but the quantitative atomic and metallic contributions to the characteristics of nanomaterials were not studied.…”

“…BY NANOPARTICLES As noted in numerous papers [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], the proper ties of nanoparticles differ from those of metals and atoms, being intermediate between them. However, quantitative relations between the atomic and metallic properties were not studied.…”

Pulsed-Laser Ablation of Au Foil in Primary Alcohols Influenced by Direct Current

“…Cylindrical glass ablation cell with a teflon cover was equipped with (i) two glass tubes allowing inert gas (Ar, 99.999%) to come in and leave, (ii) two electrode holders connected with a power supply, and (iii) a Au foil holder. Inert atmosphere is employed in order to increase the yield of nanoparticles which has been demonstrated in the literature (Werner et al, 2008). Laser pulses provided by Q-switched Nd/YAG laser system (Continuum Surellite I), wavelength 532 nm (the second harmonic) with the repetition rate of 10 Hz, effective diameter of a pseudo-Gaussian spot of 5 mm, and pulse width (FWHM) of 6 ns were used for the pulsed-laser ablation of the Au foil immersed in primary alcohols (100 mL).…”

“…Darroudi et al, 2011;Kabashin et al, 2003;Mafune et al, 2002;Šišková et al, 2007, or even DNA (Takeda et al, 2005). In the literature, there have also been published pulsed-laser ablation processes of metallic foils performed in ionic liquids (Wender et al, 2011), or in a wide range of organic solvents, such as chloroform (Compagninni et al, 2002;Mortier et al, 2003;Šišková et al, 2010), toluene (Amendola et al, 2005), tetrahydrofurane (Amendola et al, 2007), dimethylsulfoxide (Amendola et al, 2007), N,N-dimethylformamid (Amendola et al, 2007), acetonitrile (Amendola et al, 2007), acetone (Burakov et al, 2005(Burakov et al, , 2010Boyer et al, 2010;Tarasenko et al, 2005), primary alcohols (Burakov et al, 2010;Compagnini et al, 2002;Simakin et al, 2004;Werner et al, 2008). Another substantial advantage of pulsed-laser ablation process is the possibility to choose (at least in principle) laser wavelength, pulse duration (ns, ps, fs), energy per pulse, and fluence (energy per area).…”