Laser-mediated Synthesis of Iron Nanoclusters

In the current thesis, the main subject of study is the laser-mediated synthesis of iron nanoclusters. The process consists in reducing the size of iron microparticles by means of a photo-thermal evaporation effect prompted by nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation. The energy required to reduce the precursor element's size under 3 nm is determined by the theoretical model known as the particle heatingmelting-evaporation model. The tested recursor colloid systems consist of iron microparticles with an average size of 2 micrometers dispersed in different polar solvents (water, methanol, ethanol, ethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol 400) and in liquid nitrogen. In order to deeply understand the technique, two different energy value regimes are used: lower and higher energy values than the threshold (depending on the liquid medium). When energy values beyond the calculated threshold are used, it is possible to observe the successful synthesis of iron nanoclusters. Moreover, when the dipole moment of the used solvents is larger than the one found in water, the solvent seems to act as a capping agent enabling the stabilization of the produced nanomaterial without the use of external stabilization agents.Finally, various optical and electron-based techniques are used to determine that the synthesized materials exhibit the expected optical and morphological properties. On top of, considering the material's outstanding characteristics indicated in the relevant literature, it is planned to test its catalytic activity and magnetic properties in the future.