Study of the physicochemical surface alterations and incubation phenomena induced on iron targets by nanosecond pulsed laser ablation in liquids: effect on productivity and characteristics of the synthesized nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) particles

•Pulse energy and pulse numbers per site govern ablation spots size and texture.•Chemical alteration inside the ablation spots was analyzed by using SEM, EDS and LRS.•Surface chemical alteration inside ablation spots depends on ablation medium nature.•Threshold fluence vary with the ablation medium nature and pulse numbers per site.•Incubation effect depends on the chemical alteration of the ablated target surface.•Ablation medium nature govern composition and structure of transition metal NPs.•Laser ablation of bulk iron disks submerged in EtOH yielded to nZVI particles.•Scanning speed governs NPs size, polydispersity and composition.•Low pulse overlap values lead NPs overall polydispersity index lower than 0.10.