The best conditions for the nucleation of carbon nanoparticles in laser-induced plasma

Abstract Despite the existence of many more efficient methods of producing carbon nanoparticles, ablation of a carbon target by a laser pulse remains important. It enables studying the bare properties of nanoparticles, not contaminated with reagents or reaction products. The present work analyses the mechanisms of nucleation and growth of nanoparticles in carbon vapours generated during ablation of graphite with a nanosecond laser pulse. The role of both the homogeneous and the heterogeneous (ions) nucleation was investigated, defining the areas of their occurrence. It has been shown that the most favourable conditions are high pressure of the order 1 GPa and relatively low temperature of about 15 000 K. Such conditions are obtainable when ablation occurs in a liquid and the fluence of the laser pulse is low, exceeding the ablation threshold about 2.7 times only. The resulting nanoparticles are relatively homogeneous and have a diameter of approximately 2.5–5 nm.