Synthesis of nanostructured ZnO and ZnO₂ by laser ablation process using third harmonic of Nd:YAG laser

A laser-based method was developed for synthesis of nanostructured ZnO/ZnO₂ using nanosecond pulsed laser ablation (PLA) on a metallic zinc target in water. Typical laser pulse energy for PLA process was between 40-130 milli-joules per pulse. The addition of an oxidising agent enhanced the nanoparticle yield by 100% and reduced the grain size drastically. A variety of analysis techniques were applied for the characterisation of products. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time ZnO₂ (zinc peroxide) having grain size of 5 nm are produced using laser ablation.