High productive and continuous nanoparticle fabrication by laser ablation of a wire-target in a liquid jet

Abstract

To scale-up pulsed laser ablation in liquids for nanoparticle synthesis, we combine two promising approaches, a wire-shaped target and a small liquid layer, in one setup. Using thin liquid layers a significant increase in nanoparticle productivity (up to 5 times) is obtained. This increase is attributed to the dynamics, shape of the cavitation bubble and the spring-board like behavior of the wires in the small liquid filament. It is found that despite the increase in productivity, the particle size is independent of the productivity-related ablation parameters such as repetition rate, liquid layer thickness and wire diameter. In addition to the cavitation bubble, further shielding effects have been related to both, the laser ablated material and the presence of generated small vapor bubbles. The obtained results show that this setup can provide a good strategy to realize a continuous and process-stable (particle size and quality) ablation process without the need of target replacement.