# Inhibition of Particle Growth During Single‐Pulse Laser Fragmentation by Barrierless Adsorption of the Just‐Formed Gold Nanoparticles on Graphene Oxide

## TL;DR

Using graphene oxide to support gold nanoparticles before laser fragmentation significantly reduces their final size, especially at low gold concentrations.

## Contribution

A new method to produce sub-3 nm gold clusters on graphene oxide via laser fragmentation with size quenching.

## Key findings

- GO-supported AuNPs fragmented to sub-3 nm clusters when mass load was below 10 wt%.
- Low Au concentration and high interparticular distance enhanced size quenching.
- GO sheet-to-sheet distance and Au concentration predict minimal AuNP size.

## Abstract

The use of pulsed lasers to produce surfactant‐free colloidal nanoparticles via laser ablation and fragmentation is well established. For laser ablation, the addition of support materials during laser ablation in liquids has shown size quenching effects, directly yielding supported and surfactant‐free ~7 nm metal nanoparticle catalysts in a single step. However, its feasibility for laser fragmentation has barely investigated. This is why, in this work, we show that the fragmentation of initial, large gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), supported on graphene oxide (GO) already before laser fragmentation, leads to a significant size quenching effect, yielding GO‐supported sub 3 nm gold clusters. The size‐quenching was found to be particularly effective when the mass load of gold on GO was below 10 wt%, and a diluted Au/GO dispersion was used. In this context, the role of GO sheet‐to‐sheet distance and the overall gold concentration are discussed and used to predict experimental conditions which lead to a minimal AuNP size. The presented study therefore, not only optimizes the synthesis conditions to gain GO‐supported clusters but also presents a new study concept to mechanistically investigate the post‐synthesis growth processes during surfactant‐free laser‐based synthesis of nanoparticles.

Supporting the initial gold nanoparticles onto graphene oxide sheets before laser fragmentation with low spatial density leads to a significant reduction in the final particle size, especially at low mass loads of gold (higher interparticular distance).© 2026 WILEY‐VCH GmbH