It's All in the Surface—Controlling the Properties of Diamond Nanomaterials

Diamond materials have been used for a variety of applications ranging from tribology, via electrochemistry, biomedical engineering, drug delivery, quantum sensing, bioimaging as well as catalysis.<br/>In most of these areas it was shown that a suitable surface termination and functionalization is needed for a tailored interaction with the target environment, stabilizing the charge state of color centers, preventing non-specific interactions with biological compounds and tune the electronic properties of the diamond materials.<br/>Here we will report on our recent advances in the tailored surface chemistry of diamond nanomaterials for a broad range of applications.[1-4] This includes the discussion of the influence of the type of diamond nanomaterials, i.e. detonation diamond and nanodiamond produced from materials resulting from HTHP and CVD synthesis. Reactivity differences will be discussed and methodology to address these in a practical manner.<br/>Furthermore, the surface functionalization for targeted interaction of diamond materials with biological entities e.g. required for space-resolved quantum sensing and targeted drug delivery will be discussed together with strategies to prevent non-specific interactions with serum proteins.<br/>Additionally, the tuning of the electronic properties of diamond materials for catalytic applications will be discussed in this presentation. Here, we will focus on the use of electronic states originating from non-diamond carbon and the functionalization if the diamond surface with suitable photosensitizers.<br/>In summary, the importance of efficient and controlled surface functionalization of diamond nanomaterials will be highlighted.<br/><br/>This research has received funding from the Horizon Europe project SUNGATE ( HORIZON-CL5-2022-D3-03, contract number: 101122061), the DFG (priority program SPP2370, projects KR3316/10-1 and KR3316/11-1) and the Carl-Zeiss Foundation ( CZS Center QPhoton innovation project).<br/><br/>[1] A. Sigaeva, V. Merz, R. Sharmin, R. Schirhagl, A. Krueger, <i>J. Mater. Chem C </i><b>2023</b>, <i>11</i>, 6642-6650. DOI: 10.1039/D3TC00590A<br/>[2] E. Mayerhoefer, A. Krueger, <i>Acc. </i><i>Chem. Res. </i><b>2022</b>, 3594–3604, DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.2c00596<br/>[3] F. Buchner, T. Kirschbaum, A. Venerosy, H. Girard, J.-Ch. Arnault, B. Kiendl, A. Krueger, K. Larsson, A. Bande, T. Petit, Ch. Merschjann<b><i>, </i></b><i>Nanoscale </i><b>2022</b>, <i>14</i>, 17188-17195 , DOI: 10.1039/D2NR03919B<br/>[4] D. Olivares-Postigo, F. Gorrini, V. Bitonto, J. Ackermann, R. Giri, A. Krueger, A. Bifone<b>, </b><i>Nanoscale Res. Lett. </i><b>2022</b>, <i>17</i>, 95, DOI: 10.1186/s11671-022-03723-2