Agglomeration in core-shell structure of CuAg nanoparticles synthesized by the laser ablation of Cu target in aqueous solutions

Abstract

Metallic copper Cu and bimetallic copper-silver CuAg nanoparticles (NPs) are generated by the ablation of copper bulk target in water and aqueous Ag colloidal solution, respectively. The experiments were performed using nanosecond Nd: YAG laser operating at 1064 nm. The generated NPs are characterized by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy. The conducted investigations can be summarized as follows: (i) CuAg NPs colloidal solution possess the absorption in UV-vis spectral region, which can be attributed to the Cu-component; (ii) the primary bimetallic CuAg NPs have near uniform dimensions with diameter of about 15 nm, and as a rule, they are grouped into larger agglomerates without defined morphology; (iii) the obtained Cu NPs have mainly spherical form with average diameters up to 20 nm. Both types of NPs show a tendency towards the formation of large agglomerates with different morphology. Bimetallic NPs show the plasmon resonance in the vicinity of 640 nm with a good coincidence with formation of the colloidal solution of pure Cu NPs. The results also demonstrate that the core-shell structure (Ag-rich core/Cu-rich shell) is important for the formation of the bimetallic NPs, also agreeing very well with theory.