Synthesis of silver nano-butterfly park by using laser ablation of aqueous salt for gas sensing application

In this report, silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) were prepared by pulsed laser ablation of the silver nitrate salt solution using Nd:YAG laser. Trisodium citrate (TSC) is used as a stabilizing/reducing agent for nanoparticles. Under different laser ablation durations, the morphology of nanoparticles changed. Nanoparticles showed the average size ranging from 5 to 31 nm for 20–80 min of ablation. The theoretical and experimental estimation of the particle sizes is done. Butterfly-shaped silver nanoparticles have been tested for the room-temperature clad-modified fiber optic gas sensors sensitivity with ammonia and ethanol gas. The clad-modified optical fiber sensor exhibits distinct linear variation in the spectral peak intensity with the ammonia concentration (0–500 ppm). The characteristics of the gas sensors when exposed to ethanol and ammonia gases were used for studying the sensor selectivity. The results exhibited good sensor response and selectivity for ammonia with sensitivity of 64 counts/ppm and sensitivity percentage of 27%, whereas for ethanol, sensitivity of 9.5 counts/ppm and sensitivity percentage of only 4% were observed.