Laser ablation in water for silver and gold nanoparticle synthesis and their application for improvement of TEA CO2 LIBS setup performance

Abstract

Pulsed laser ablation in liquids (PLAL) is an approach for the direct synthesis of nanoparticles from the bulk material. In the present work, silver and gold nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized using the PLAL technique, and obtained water colloid suspensions were characterized by TEM–EDX, ICP-OES, UV–VIS, and DLS methods. On the other hand, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a well-recognized and versatile analytical technique for the element analysis of solid samples. However, obtaining improved spectral intensity and detection sensitivity are still great challenging tasks, especially for an alternative and cost-effective LIBS setup based on TEA CO2 laser. Considering these demands, this work aimed to investigate a promising approach to signal enhancement based on the deposition of noble NPs on the plastic sample. The effect of NPS on the enhancement of the LIBS signal has been investigated. LIBS experiments were carried out in air at atmospheric pressure and obtained spectra with a high signal-to-background (SBR) ratio. This study shows that signal enhancement can be achieved followed by the lower limits of detection by increasing the ablation amount rate.