PRODUCTION OF NANOPARTICLES BY LASER IRRADIATION IN MICRO DROPS

Description

Today, laser ablation is used in a wide variety of fields, including the manufacture of nanoparticles. In general, the products of laser ablation appear as a distribution of particles of different nature and morphology that ranges from an isolated atom, through nanoparticles and microparticles, to millimeter-sized particles. In particular, the device and procedure proposed here is aimed at producing nanoparticles free of contamination from other larger particles by irradiating a microscopic drop containing a precursor solution with a laser pulse whose duration can be chosen in a range from femtoseconds to several nanoseconds and atmospheric pressure. This procedure: increases the reproducibility of laser-matter coupling, prevents the generation of aerosols originating from the precursor and results in adiabatic expansion free of liquid phase condensation.

Advantages

Among the advantages of this device and its procedure are: • Increases the reproducibility of laser-material coupling, enabling the use of lasers that are more suitable for production environments due to their lower complexity, smaller size and lower cost. • The use of a liquid that contains the precursor in solution opens the door to the use of almost any type of material as a precursor. • The use of a liquid microscopic precursor prevents the generation of condensation and spatter aerosols.