Laser-based colloid synthesis has emerged as a powerful and versatile technique in nanoscience, offering a clean, surfactant-free route to the production of functional nanomaterials. This approach is gaining increasing attention due to its wide application in energy, catalysis, photonics, and biomedicine. In particular, composite nanoparticles—comprising combinations of metals and metal oxides—generate great interest. Their unique physicochemical properties arise from nanoscale interactions and can be fine-tuned by controlling parameters such as composition, morphology, and structural architecture.

Metallic nanoparticles such as copper (Cu) are well known for their plasmonic behavior, bactericidal properties, catalytic efficiency, and thermal conductivity, making them valuable in various applications from electronics and optoelectronics to medicine. Copper oxides (Cu₂O, CuO), as semiconducting materials, play a key role in sustainable technologies, including hydrogen production by water splitting, photocatalysis for environmental remediation, and sensor development. These oxides also exhibit antibacterial and catalytic activities, which further enhance their multifunctionality.

Our research focused on the laser fabrication of Cu\Cu-oxide composite nanoparticles under varying conditions of laser fluence, irradiation time, precursor material, and solvent environment. We investigated the mechanisms underlying their formation, the interplay between processing parameters and particle structure/composition, and how these factors affected key properties. The results of our study, along with an evaluation of the antibacterial and electrocatalytic activities of the obtained composites, will be presented.

This research was partially supported by the Polish National Science Centre under grants No. 2018/31/B/ST8/03043 and No. 2022/06/X/ST3/01743, and partially by the Kosciuszko Foundation Exchange Program to the United States.