Fan Ye1,2,Ahsan Ayub1,Darren Chang1,2,Roman Chernikov3,Qiaoyun Chen1,Reza Karimi1,Shawn Wettig1,Joseph Sanderson1,Kevin Musselman1,2
University of Waterloo1,Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology2,Canadian Light Source3
Fan Ye1,2,Ahsan Ayub1,Darren Chang1,2,Roman Chernikov3,Qiaoyun Chen1,Reza Karimi1,Shawn Wettig1,Joseph Sanderson1,Kevin Musselman1,2
University of Waterloo1,Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology2,Canadian Light Source3
A novel strategy to synthesize molybdenum blue (MB) nanorings by irradiating MoO<sub>3</sub> suspended in water/ethanol mixtures with intense femtosecond laser pulses is demonstrated. It is found that the MoO<sub>3</sub> can be dissolved in the water during laser irradiation to form molybdic acid, which provides an acidic environment for the formation of MB. Concentrations of ethanol as low as 1% result in the formation of MB and by adjusting the concentration of ethanol in the solvent, the absorption band can be tuned due to the modification of Mo<sup>V</sup>-O-Mo<sup>VI</sup> entities. The MB synthesized in 30% ethanol appears the darkest blue and assembly of vesicles 115 nm in size is observed. At high concentrations of ethanol (>70%), H<i><sub>X</sub></i>MoO<sub>3</sub> and MoO<sub>3-</sub><i><sub>X</sub></i> are preferentially formed instead of MB. The photothermal conversion efficiency of the MBs synthesized in 1% and 30% ethanol is above 40%.