CC BY
16LM-I-12
Synthesis by laser ablation in liquid of alloy nanoparticles: controlling the structure and the composition for specific
applications
V. Amendola1
1- University of Padova, Department of Chemical Sciences 1, Via Marzolo I-35131 Padova - ITALY Main author email address: vincenzo.amendola@unipd.it
Laser ablation in liquid (LAL) emerged as a powerful technique for the production of nanoparticles (NPs) with peculiar surface chemistry and a large variety of compositions, included metastable phases and nanocomposites, all by the same self standing and simple set up.[1-2] Currently, several efforts are undergoing to improve the control on laser generated nanomaterials and to precisely understand the formation mechanism of NPs.[1,3,4] As part of these efforts, a whole catalogue of alloy NPs was accessible for fundamental studies about the structural motifs adopted by elements frozen at the nanoscale and the consequent set of physical-chemical properties. The insights on the structure-properties relation provided the basis for further optimization of the nanoalloys for specific applications. The cases of alloys designed to climb the volcano plot for specific electrocatalytic processes,[5,6] alloys where the coexistence of magnetic and plasmonic properties is engineered,[7,8] and noble metal alloys acting as 4-D multimodal contrast agents with enhanced clearance from the body[9] will be discussed. This is a general demonstration of the range of innovative results and functional optimization expected by the synergy between LAL synthesis, structural modelling, and
experimental (A)
verification of functional
properties
in nonequilibrium
I5
uj 4 I
OL 3
nanoalloys. ^^ (C)
Figure 1. (A) Iron-rich Au-Fe nanoalloys are obtained in ethanol by nanosecond laser ablation of a bilayer Au/Fe film (left). When the same film is ablated in water, core-shell NPs of iron oxide-AuFe metal alloy (iron poor) are achieved.[3,4] These NPs possess interesting properties for photonics (B), exhibiting localized surface plasmons,[8] and for catalysis (C), with enhanced activity compared to single element analogues[5].
[1] V. Amendola et al., Room-Temperature Laser Synthesis in Liquid of Oxide, Metal-Oxide Core-Shells, and Doped Oxide Nanoparticles, Chem. Eur. J., 26, 9206 - 9242 (2020).
[2] S. Crivellaro et al., A system for the synthesis of nanoparticles by laser ablation in liquid that is remotely controlled with PC or smartphone, Rev. Sci. Instr., 90, 033902, (2019).
[3] V. Amendola et al.; Formation of alloy nanoparticles by laser ablation of Au/Fe multilayer films in liquid environment, J.Coll.Interf.Sci., 489, 18-27, (2017).
[4] A. Tymoczko et al., One-step synthesis of Fe-Au core-shell magnetic-plasmonic nanoparticles driven by interface energy minimization, Nanoscale Horiz., 4, 1326-1332, (2019).
[5] I. Vassalini et al., Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution in Au-Fe Nanoalloys, Angew. Chem., 56, 6589-6593, (2017).
[6] R. Brandiele et al., Climbing the oxygen reduction reaction volcano plot with laser ablation synthesis of PtxY nanoalloys, Catal. Sci. Technol., 10, 4503-4508 (2020).
[7] V. Amendola et al., Laser generation of iron-doped silver nanotruffles with magnetic and plasmonic properties, Nano research 8, 40074023, (2015).
[8] D. Alexander et al., Electronic Structure-Dependent Surface Plasmon Resonance in Single Au-Fe Nanoalloys, Nano Lett., 19, 5754-5761, (2019).
[9] V. Torresan et al., 4D Multimodal Nanomedicines Made of Nonequilibrium Au-Fe Alloy Nanoparticles ACS Nano 14, 12840-12853 (2020).
