Laser ablation of silver and gold in liquid ammonia

Laser ablation of a silver (Ag) and/or gold (Au) target was performed in liquid ammonia (l-NH3) at 233 K using nanosecond laser pulses of 1064, 532 and 355 nm wavelengths. An “in situ” monitoring of the ablation process by UV/vis/NIR spectroscopy has shown the evolution of the surface plasmon extinction band of silver or gold nanoparticles and thus confirmed their formation. While sols of Au nanoparticles in l-NH3 are quite stable in air, those of Ag nanoparticles undergo oxidation to Ag(I) complexes with NH3 ligands. On the other hand, formation of solvated electrons, namely of the (e−)NH3 solvates, has not been unequivocally confirmed under the conditions of our laser ablation/nanoparticle fragmentation experiment, since only very weak vis/NIR spectral features of these solvates were observed with a low reproducibility. Reference experiments have shown that the well-known chemical production of these solvates is hindered by the presence of Ag and Au plates. Ag and Au targets can thus possibly act as electron scavengers in our ablation experiments.