Document Type
Article
Original Publication Date
2023
Journal/Book/Conference Title
The Journal of Physical Chemistry B
Volume
127
Issue
29
First Page
6551
Last Page
6661
DOI of Original Publication
10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c03708
Date of Submission
December 2024
Abstract
Laser synthesis in liquids is often carried out in organic solvents to prevent oxidation of metals during nanoparticle generation and to produce tailored carbon-based nanomaterials. This work investigates laser ablation of neat organic liquids acetone, ethanol, n-hexane, and toluene with pulse widths ranging from 30 fs to 4 ps through measurements of reaction kinetics and characterization of the ablation products with optical spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Increasing the pulse width from 30 fs to 4 ps impacts both the reaction kinetics and product distributions, suppressing the formation of solvent molecule dimers and oxidized molecules while enhancing the yields of gaseous molecules, sp-hybridized carbons, and fluorescent carbon dots. The observed trends are explained in the context of established ionization mechanisms and cavitation bubble dynamical processes that occur during ultrashort pulsed laser ablation of liquid media. The results of this work have important implications both for controlling the formation of carbon shells around metal nanoparticles during the ablation of solid targets in liquid and producing carbon nanomaterials directly from the ablation of organic liquids without a solid target.
Rights
© 2023 American Chemical Society
Is Part Of
VCU Chemistry Publications
Comments
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B, copyright © 2023 American Chemical Society, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c03708