AN IMPACT OF THE LASER IRRADIATION TIME ON PROPERTIES OF COLLOIDAL SOLUTIONS OF SILICON NANOPARTICLES

Abstract

The design of semiconductor-metallic nanostructures using pulsed laser ablation in liquids (PLAL) is a very demanding task for biomedical applications being at an early stage of its development. Only few recent papers show the possibility of such a synthesis of composite nanoparticles as well as their perspectives for biosensing applications. However, mechanisms of the laser-stimulated formation of semiconductor-metallic nanoparticles involving several processes are not clarified yet being considerably depended on experimental conditions. In this work, we demonstrated an impact of the laser irradiation of colloidal solutions of silicon nanoparticles at different exposure time in the presence/absence of a gold target. In particular, longer ablation of the metal led to a stronger plasmonic maximum in silicon nanoparticles at around 520 nm. It also decreased the hydrodynamic size from 165 nm to 85 nm as well as the ξ-potential from –46 mV to –30 mV by increasing the ablation time from 0 s to 600 s. At the same time, the lowest electrical conductivity value (~1.5 µS/cm) of the plasmonic nanocomposites was detected at 120 s irradiation time. The highest concentration of synthesized composite nanoparticles (~3·1011 NPs/mL) was achieved at 180 s ablation time. Another purpose of the paper was to reveal an influence of the used laser irradiation on properties of the colloidal solutions of silicon nanoparticles themselves. It was found a considerable decrease of their absorbance with the increase of the laser exposure time that can be associated with the change of their properties (e.g. concentration, size, oxidation state etc.). Thus, the laser irradiation strongly affects properties of colloidal solutions of silicon nanoparticles that must also be taken into account considering possible mechanisms of the formation of composite nanostructures. Presented in the paper fast optical diagnostic can help to determine properties of colloidal solutions of nanocomposites formed by PLAL prior their biomedical or catalytic applications.