Synthesis and characterization of potential iron–platinum drugs and supplements by laser liquid photolysis

Steven S Nkosi,1,2 Bonex W Mwakikunga,4 Elias Sideras-Haddad,2 Andrew Forbes1,31CSIR National Laser Centre, Pretoria, South Africa; 2DST/NRF Centre for Excellence in Strong Materials and School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 3School of Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa; 4DST/CSIR National Centre for Nano-Structured Materials, Pretoria, South AfricaAbstract: Highly crystalline nanospherical iron–platinum systems were produced by 248 nm laser irradiation of a liquid precursor at different laser fluences, ranging from 100–375 mJ/cm2. The influence of laser intensity on particle size, iron composition, and structure was systematically investigated. Different nanostructures of iron–platinum alloy and chemically disordered iron–platinum L10 phase were obtained without annealing. The prepared precursor solution underwent deep photolysis to polycrystalline iron–platinum nanoalloys through Fe(III) acetylacetonate and Pt(II) acetylacetonate. Fe(II) and Pt(I) acetylacetone decomposed into Fe0 and Pt0 nanoparticles. We found that the (001) diffraction peak shifted linearly to a lower angle, with the last peak shifting in opposition to the others. This caused the face-centered cubic L10 structure to change its composition according to laser fluence. The nanostructures were shown to contain iron and platinum only by energy-dispersive spectroscopy at several spots. The response of these iron–platinum nanoparticles to infrared depends on their stoichiometric composition, which is controlled by laser fluence.Keywords: nanostructures, iron, platinum, nanoparticles, laser liquid photolysis, composition