Preparation of gold, silver and copper nanoparticles via pulsed laser ablation

Gold, silver and copper nanoparticles were prepared via pulsed Nd:YAG laser ablation in different liquids. Optical properties and size of the nanoparticles were characterized by UV/visible spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy observations respectively. Our data shows that increase in dipole moment of liquid molecules results the stable colloidal solution with smaller size of the particles. In addition, ablation environment influences the composition of the particles for example ablation of copper in water can oxidize the nanoparticles. This provides the simple and flexible method for fabrication of oxide nanoparticles.