Inclusion of supported gold nanoparticles into their semiconductor support.

Supported particles are easily accessible as standard materials used in heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis. This article addresses our exemplary studies on the integration of supported nanoparticles into their solid support, namely gold nanoparticles into zinc oxide sub-micrometer spheres, by energy controlled pulsed laser melting in a free liquid jet. This one-step, continuous flow-through processing route reverses the educt's structure, converting the ligand-free surface adsorbate into a spherical subsurface solid inclusion within its former support. The results show how a nanoparticulate surface adsorbate can be included in the form of crystalline nanoparticles into the resolidified support matrix, demonstrated by using plasmonic nanoparticles and semiconductor microparticles as reference materials.