Carbon nanoparticles fabricated by infrared laser ablation of graphite and polycrystalline diamond targets

This paper presents the results of carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) production by infrared laser ablation of a graphite or a polycrystalline diamond target, submerged in one of two solvents, water or isopropanol. The targets were irradiated using a SPI fibre laser with a wavelength of 1064nm being operated at different average powers. After laser-assisted synthesis of CNPs, the resulting colloids, i.e particles in a liquid medium, were examined using the analytical techniques of dynamic light scattering, UV-Vis, Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. The results show that the properties of CNPs strongly depend on processing conditions of the liquid phase-pulsed laser ablation (LP-PLA) process. In particular, the size of nanoparticles produced are affected by the processing parameters of the laser ablation. The results show that the laser processing of a graphite target in deionised water and in isopropanol produces carbon nanoparticles with properties that are beneficial for various biochemical and biomedical applications.