A Simple and “Green” Technique to Synthesize Metal Nanocolloids by Ultrashort Light Pulses

In this chapter Ag, Ni and Fe nanocolloids synthesized by “green” ultrashort pulse laser ablation of solid metal targets using different pulse energies and liquid media are characterized by different techniques. Optical extinction spectroscopy (OES), micro-Raman spectroscopy (MRS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron diffraction (ED) were independently used to analyze optical, morphological and compositional properties of the generated nanocolloids. In a deeper way, the stability characteristics of Ag nanocolloids in aqueous solutions with different stabilizers were studied owing to their potential use in biocompatible compounds. Besides, due to their interesting applications, few atoms Ag nanoclusters (NCs) were synthesized using the same ablation technique, analyzing their fluorescent and photocatalytic properties. On the other hand, to expand the characterization of the nanocolloids, their magnetic behavior was inspected for the Ni and Fe by vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM).