Laser Ablation in Liquid: An Unconventional, Fast, Clean and Straightforward Technique for Material Preparation

Abstract

The laser ablation in liquid environment (LALE) technique is a straightforward experimental technique with few controllable parameters, capable to provide extreme pressure and temperature conditions during target ablation without the need for dedicated systems to provide those variables. Additionally, we can state that LALE can be considered a low-cost experimental technique, with few steps and a clean synthesis method, by which a wide variety of materials can be synthesized with high yield. The majority of studies published in the literature using this technique seem to be limited only to the synthesis of metal nanoparticles, metal oxides, nitrates and semiconducting. However, in order to extend the synthesis potential of this technique, in this chapter we are going to demonstrate that with the appropriate choice of reactants, solvent, target materials and the solid-liquid interface interactions we will be able to prepare more complex molecules such as carbonate compound Pb3(CO3)2(OH)2, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), luminescent metal-organic frameworks (LMOFs), highly dispersed CdS quantum dots and magnetic materials. Also for each material synthesized, we are going to propose a mechanism to explain its preparation using the LALE technique.