https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201816704008
Zinc oxide nanocolloids prepared by picosecond pulsed laser ablation in water at different temperatures
1
Dip. di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
2
Dip. di Scienze Matematiche e Informatiche, Scienze Fisiche e Scienze della Terra (MIFT), Università di Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy
3
Dip. di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e dei Materiali (DICEAM), Università Mediterranea, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
* Corresponding author: ldurso@unict.it;
* Corresponding author: enfazio@unime.it
Published online: 9 January 2018
Zinc oxide with wide direct band gap and high exciton binding energy is one of the most promising materials for ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting devices. It further exhibits good performance in the degradation of non-biodegradable pollutants under UV irradiation. In this work, zinc oxide (ZnO) and zinc oxide/gold (ZnO/Au) nanocolloids are prepared by picosecond pulsed laser ablation (ps-PLA), using a Zn and Au metallic targets in water media at room temperature (RT) and 80°C. ZnO and Au nanoparticles (NPs) with size in the 10–50 nm range are obtained at RT, while ZnO nanorods (NRs) are formed when water is maintained at 80°C during the ps-PLA process. Au NPs, added to ZnO colloids after the ablation process, decorate ZnO NRs. The crystalline phase of all ZnO nanocolloids is wurtzite. Methylene blue dye is used to investigate the photo-catalytic activity of all the synthesised nanocolloids, under UV light irradiation.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2018
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
