Synthesis of silver selenide bicomponent nanoparticles by a novel technique: Laser-solid-liquid ablation

Abstract A novel laser–solid–liquid ablation technique has been developed to synthesize Ag 2 Se nanoparticles from silver nitrate and selenium powder in a mixed solvent of 2-propanol and ethylenediamine. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD indicated that the products were the single phase of silver selenide. The TEM images revealed that the as-prepared Ag 2 Se grains were homogeneous and spherical, and their average size was about 30 nm. This novel technique can be extended to prepare other nanoparticles of various compositions.