Laser‐Synthesized Amorphous PdSe <sub>2‐x</sub> Nanoparticles: A Defect‐Rich Platform for High‐Efficiency SERS, Photocatalysis, and Photothermal Conversion
ABSTRACT The control of material properties at the atomic scale remains a central challenge in materials science. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) offer remarkable electronic and optical properties, but their functionality is largely dictated by their stable crystalline phases. Here, we demonstrate a single‐step, ligand‐free strategy using femtosecond laser ablation in liquid to transform crystalline, stoichiometric palladium diselenide (PdSe 2 ) into highly stable, amorphous, and non‐stoichiometric nanoparticles (PdSe 2‐x , with 1). This laser‐driven amorphization creates a high density of selenium vacancies and coordinatively unsaturated sites, which unlock a range of emergent functions absent in the crystalline precursor, including plasmon‐free surface‐enhanced Raman scattering with an enhancement factor exceeding 10, a 50‐fold increase in photocatalytic activity, and near‐infrared photothermal conversion efficiency reaching 83%. Our findings establish laser‐induced amorphization as a powerful top‐down approach for defect‐engineered TMDCs and advances their practical usage in optics, catalysis, and nanomedicine.
Authors
- N.M. Belozerova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3386-605X)
- Alexey D. Bolshakov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7223-7232)
- Andrei Ushkov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8962-1599)
- Dmitry Dyubo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6033-9773)
- Aleksey V. Arsenin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7506-4389)
- Daniil I. Tselikov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6454-9353)
- Georgy A. Ermolaev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0895-818X)
- Р. И. Романов (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3674-4581)
- Gleb I. Tselikov
- Ivan Kruglov
- Andrey A. Vyshnevyy
- Alexander Syuy
- Alexander Chernov
- Sergey V. Bazhenov
- Anton A. Popov
- Sergey Novikov
- Andrei V. Kabashin
- Ilya Martynov
- Valentyn Volkov
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Dubai (AE)
- St Petersburg University (RU)
- Yerevan State University (AM)
- Aix-Marseille Université (FR)
- Federal Almazov North-West Medical Research Centre (RU)
- Perm National Research Polytechnic University (RU)
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (RU)
- Institute of Engineering Physics (RU)
- Nanosystem (Russia) (RU)
- Centrale Méditerranée (FR)
- National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (RU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials Interfaces
- Published
- 2026-01-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202500902
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Ablation Synthesis of Nanoparticles
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Russian Science Foundation