Journal of Nanoparticle Research (2004) 6:661–664 ©Springer 2005

DOI: 10.1007/s11051-004-3212-z

Brief communication

Au–Cu nanoparticles produced by laser ablation of mixtures of Au and Cu microparticles

Gokul Malyavantham, Daniel T. O'Brien, Michael F. Becker, John W. Keto and Desiderio Kovar*

Texas Materials Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C2200 Austin, TX 78712-0292, USA; *Author for correspondence (E-mail: dkovar@mail.utexas.edu)

Received 2 June 2004; accepted in revised form 13 September 2004

Key words: laser ablation, aerosol, alloy, nanoparticle, microparticle

Abstract

In this study we investigate the possibility of producing alloy nanoparticles (NP) from mixtures of elemental microparticle (MP) powders using the laser ablation of microparticle (LAM) process. Mixtures of Au and Cu particles with a diameter of 1.5–2.0 µm were fed in aerosol form into a laser ablation cell and ablated using a pulsed laser. The resulting NP were collected electrostatically and characterized using TEM. The NP were spherical and crystalline with a size that depended on the collection location but ranged from 2 to 15 nm. Using TEM/SAD, it was determined that the NP had a face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal structure and, with EDS, it was found that individual NP consisted of both Au and Cu. These experimental results confirm previous numerical models that suggested that it might be possible to form alloy NP from mixtures of elemental MP using the LAM process.