Stable gold nanoparticles obtained in pure acetone by laser ablation with different wavelengths

We prepared gold nanoparticles (NPs) by ps laser ablation in pure acetone and water with 532 and 1,064 nm wavelengths. The NPs obtained in pure acetone are stable for years and, depending on the fabrication conditions, they can be very small, quasi monodisperse and fluorescent. These properties are not lost when they are transferred from acetone to water. Post-irradiation tests of the colloids with 532 nm pulses, before and after phase transfer to water, and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), either on liquid and on dried samples, suggest that the stabilization mechanism in acetone is related to the light-induced formation on the gold surface of enolate which, in some cases, can undergo degradation with formation of amorphous carbon. Micro-SERS tests were also used to demonstrate that functionalization of the particles with 1,10-phenanthroline or adenine is possible after transfer to the water phase, which opens the way to the use of such structures for biological and medical applications, such as biocompatible fluorescent or Raman markers.