Fabrication of Cu nanoparticles using pulsed laser ablation in ethylene glycol

Pulsed Laser Ablation in Liquid (PLAL) is an easy and environment friendly method to produce colloidal nanoparticles. However, copper (Cu) nanoparticles are easily oxidized, especially in aqueous solutions which are the most common medium in PLAL. Therefore, it is important to find a suitable ablation medium to limit the oxidation of the fabricated Cu nanoparticles. We report fabrication of colloidal Cu nanoparticles by ablating Cu metal plates in ethylene glycol using nanosecond laser pulses (1064 nm, 6 ns and 10 Hz) with laser fluence of 10.2 J/cm2. We optimize the ablation time parameter for one continuous cycle of pulsed laser ablation by monitoring the evolution of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the nanoparticles. XRD pattern revealed that the produced nanoparticles consist of pure copper phase without oxidized copper impurities. TEM measurements show that the synthesized copper nanoparticles are spherical. This research work shows that ethylene glycol is a suitable medium for pulsed laser ablation synthesis of copper nanoparticles.