Hybrid nanodiamonds target future electronics

 

US researchers have unveiled striking images of diamond hybrid nanoparticles.

 

The nanostructures are constructed using a cheap and straightforward method that could prove critical to the development of high performance solid state quantum devices.

 

By coupling nanodiamonds, containing a nitrogen vacancy, to metal nanoparticles and semiconductor quantum dots, Professor Min Ouyang and colleagues from the University of Maryland are set to create nanoscale semiconductors, magnets and more.

 

"Our key innovation is that we can now reliably and efficiently produce these freestanding hybrid particles in large numbers," highlights Ouyang.

 

 

To date, hybrid nanodiamonds have been manufactured by complex and time consuming lithography or individual particle manipulation, both of which are difficult to scale for large-scale manufacturing.

 

Instead, Ouyang and colleagues have devised a simpler bottom-up synthetic approach to nucleate and grow nanoparticles onto the surface of nanodiamonds.

 

To create hybrid nanodiamonds, a pure nanodiamond was acid treated with carboxylic groups and functionalised with hydrophobic polymer molecules, to ease nanoparticle nucleation and growth.

 

They then added the functionalised nanodiamonds to a mixture of the hydrophobic polymer solution and silver nitrate, to nucleate and grow silver nanoparticles onto the nanodiamond surface.

 

By adjusting the concentration of polymer molecules and the amount of silver nitrate in the mixture as well as growth time and temperature, the researchers could control nanoparticle size and coverage.

 

And using this general synthetic approach as the basis for hybrid nanodiamond fabrication, the researchers went on to grow and couple nanodiamonds with nitrogen vacancy centres to a range of plasmonic nanoparticles and excitonic quantum dots.

 

"If you pair one of these diamonds with silver or gold nanoparticles, the metal can enhance the nanodiamond's optical properties," explains Ouyang. "And if you couple the nanodiamond to a semiconducting quantum dot, the hybrid particle can transfer energy more efficiently."

 

The researcher reckons these hybrid nanostructures can now be used as the building blocks for future solid state devices based on nitrogen-vacancy centres.

 

Research is published in Nature Communications.