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TiOx nanoparticles are large bandgap materials that attract a great deal of attention for their use in light-powered applications. However, their utility is often restricted to employing energy from the ultraviolet (U.V.) or the second near-infrared solar spectrum region. In the current contribution, we expand the optical response of this material by its laser-mediated alloying with Ag nanoparticles, of which surface plasmon resonance activity allows the absorption of the visible solar spectrum region. For this, we produce the laser ablation of a Ti foil immersed in an aqueous solution of silver nitrate (AgNO3). The analysis of the material using transmission electron microscopy, inductive coupled plasma mass spectroscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy enabled recognizing that the use of the minimal AgNO3 solution of 1 mM leads to the optimal synthesis of nanoalloys with the coexisting crystalline phases TiO (JPDS database: PDF 00-043-1296), and Ag (PDF 00-004-0783), the bimodal size distribution centered at 60 and 130 nm, the elemental composition of 31.22% Ag and 68.78% Ti, and finally, the absorbance edges centered at 400, and 638 nm.Unlike conventional methodologies, in the presented approach, no special conditions or hazardous reducing agents are required. Therefore, we believe the current work will be of great interest in the facile and waste-reducing synthesis of nanoalloys composed by elements with contrasting optical properties.
Keywords: Nanoparticles, nanoalloys, Ti, Ag, Laser synthesis of nanoparticles© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.