Size selection in centrifugal field of chemical-free noble metal nanoparticles obtained by laser ablation

摘要

Noble metal nanoparticles (MNPs) obtained by laser ablation in liquids are free of chemical by-products, can be easily functionalized and are stable for long time (especially in water). However, their full exploitation is often limited by the poor size distribution, when compared to state of the art MNPs obtained by wet chemistry approaches. Density gradient ultracentrifugation (DGU) is an established technique to sort nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, graphite flakes and recently it was demonstrated to be effective also for the size selection of MNPs. However, the proposed separation techniques exploit salts and/or other chemicals, for the formation of density gradients.