On-line Monitoring of Nanoparticle Synthesis by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy in Vacuum

Abstract

International audienceWe propose a new technique suitable for on-line monitoring of gas phase synthesis of nanoparticles. It is based on aerodynamic focusing of nanoparticles followed by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) under vacuum. The laser crosses a beam of particles at low pressure so that the plasma-produced photons to be analyzed are emitted only from the particles. Unlike previous experiments, the background from interaction with the gaseous component is totally eliminated from the collected spectra. Vacuum allows also for easier spectra collection in the UV range. Moreover, as the nanoparticle beam is highly collimated, the optical interface windows are not obstructed by particle deposition and the system can be kept running for hours

Nanoparticles in analytical laser and plasma spectroscopy – a review of recent developments in methodology and applications

“…Picard et al employed aerodynamic focusing of the NPs under vacuum in order to eliminate the contribution of the background gas from the LIBS spectrum. 183 Low-temperature, low-pressure reactive plasmas are also successfully used to generate nanostructures, 184,185 the formation of which can be monitored by laser spectroscopic approaches. Hundt et al have employed quantum cascade laser absorption spectroscopy for the real time monitoring of the variation of the acetylene concentration in an Ar/C 2 H 2 plasma during nanostructure synthesis in a radio frequency (RF) plasma.…”

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy applied to the evaluation of penetration depth of bactericidal treatments based on silver nanoparticles in limestones

“…Regarding LIBS technique related to nanoparticles, a recent trend employs nanoparticles to enhance LIBS intensity because the presence of nanoparticles involved in the ablation process enhances the detected signal and therefore improves the analytical sensitivity of the technique [24][25][26]. On the other hand, LIBS has been used for the successfully analysis of nanoparticles in different fields like the analysis of biological tissues [27], on-line industrial monitoring [28,29] or pharmaceutical quality control [30].…”