Development of silver nanocubes created by pulsed laser ablation in liquid

Abstract

This paper describes a simple approach for creating silver (Ag) nanocubes using pulsed laser ablation in a liquid medium. The development of nanocubical formations of Ag obtained by laser ablation using Nd: YAG laser was conducted for 5, 10, 15, and 20[Formula: see text]min. The surface morphological analysis was performed using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) to show the formation of silver nanocubes with edge lengths ranging from 150[Formula: see text]nm to 250[Formula: see text]nm. The UV-visible spectroscopy demonstrates that the concentration of Ag nanostructures, evidenced by the characteristic localized surface plasmon resonance band near 400[Formula: see text]nm in the colloidal solution containing Ag nanoparticles, increased with the increasing laser ablation duration from 5[Formula: see text]min to 20[Formula: see text]min. The growth mechanism for Ag nanocubes can be easily understood with the change in laser ablation time from 5 to 10, 15, and then 20[Formula: see text]min. The Ag sheets with no specific shape start to develop after 5 min of laser ablation, and after 10[Formula: see text]min, larger particles form. Then, after 15[Formula: see text]min, a small number of cube-like nanostructures with rough and uneven edges was obtained. At the end of 20[Formula: see text]min, a complete cubic formed with fine and distinct edges and a very large amount of nanocubes. The elemental silver signal was present in Ag nanocubes, as revealed by the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) spectra. The produced Ag nanocubes may be used to construct two-dimensional nanocomposites with practical applications in the electrical, optoelectronic, electrochemical, and biological areas.