Laser Melting Process That Produces New Nanoparticles Explained

Scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Physics in Cracow recently not only produced new particles using a new method known as laser melting but also described some poorly understood processes that are responsible for their formation.

A Phys.org report specified that composite particles with submicron sizes could be generated by irradiating "a suspension of nanoparticles with a laser beam.

Violent physical and chemical processes occur during irradiation, many of which have been inadequately understood.

Recently completed studies performed at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow have shed new light on some of these mysteries.

Laser Beam Striking Agglomerates of Nanoparticles

When a laser beam strikes agglomerates of nanoparticles suspended in a colloid, events take place that is as dramatic as they are as helpful.

Such a tremendous rise in temperature results in the melting together of nanoparticles into a composite particle.

The laser melting process, comprising irritating material particles in suspension with unfocused laser light, has been identified for years.

It is primarily used for the generation of single component materials. One of the only two research teams working on this paper is trying to use such an approach to produce composite submicron particles.

Loose Agglomerates Formed

In this area, the field remains in its infancy; there are still a lot of unknowns; hence, the researchers' joy that some puzzles that perplexed them have just been unraveled, according to Zaneta Swiatkowska-Warkocka, an IFJ PAN professor and co-author of a recently published scientific article in the Scientific Reports journal.

At the same time, the most widely used and best-known approach for synthesizing nanomaterials using laser light is called "laser ablation," a similar Nano Magazine report said.

With this technique, a macroscopic target is immersed in a liquid and then pulsed with a "focused laser beam."

Under the influence of photon impacts, materials' nanoparticles are torn from the target and end up in liquid, from which they can be separated quite simply later.

In this circumstance, the laser melting, the starting material is nanoparticles formerly distributed in the entire liquid vogue, where their loose agglomerates are formed.

From Nanometers to Microns

The laser beam used for irradiation this time is spread, although selected in such a manner as to offer energy in amounts adequate to melt the nanoparticles.

By means of laser melting, it is plausible to generate materials built of particles that range in size from nanometers to microns, of various chemical structures like pure metals, their oxides, and carbides; and physical structures like composites, alloys, homogenous which include those difficult to produce with other approaches such as gold-iron, gold-nickel alloys, and gold-cobalt.

Nonetheless, the most interesting results in the studies appeared to be those that concern liquids.

Above all, it was possible to observe an association between the dielectric constant of liquid and the size of the generated composite particles; the tinier the constant, the more massive the agglomerates were.

The analyses confirmed too, the assumption that a thin layer of liquid close to heated nanoparticles goes through quick decomposition during several chemical reactions.

Related information about laser melting is shown on Akash Aggarwal's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Nanoparticles in Science Times.