Nanodiamonds are microscopic diamonds many times smaller than the width of a human hair, between four and ten nanometers in fact with one nanometer being one billionth of a meter.
Although very small according to an article in the Journal of Nature Nanotechnology points out, “Nanodiamonds have excellent mechanical and optical properties, high surface areas and tunable surface structures. They are also non-toxic, which makes them well suited to biomedical applications.”
Nanodiamonds can be found in the soot that is left after an explosion of carbon. However some nanodiamonds can be found in nature and are considered, by some scientists, to be the result of a comet exploding over the planet some millions of years ago.
A research paper, “Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling.” Has shown the presence of nanodiamonds in various sites in evelen different countries around the world.
“Clovis-age sites in North American are overlain by a thin, discrete layer with varying peak abundances of magnetic grains with iridium, magnetic microspherules, charcoal, soot, carbon spherules, glass-like carbon containing nanodiamonds, and fullerenes with [extraterrestrial (ET)] helium, all of which are evidence for an ET impact and associated biomass burning at ≈12.9 ka,” the article states. “This layer also extends throughout at least 15 Carolina Bays, which are unique, elliptical depressions, oriented to the northwest across the Atlantic Coastal Plain. We propose that one or more large, low-density ET objects exploded over northern North America, partially destabilizing the Laurentide Ice Sheet and triggering [Younger Dryas] cooling.”
Nature Nanotechnology, also points out the great diversity of uses nanodiamonds have including catalysts in scientific experiments, seeding material for cultivating diamond films, additives for automobile oils, galvanic coatings and polishing compounds and notably potential use in fighting cancer.
“This new imaging modality opens the exciting prospect of following complex cellular trafficking pathways quantitatively with important applications in drug delivery,” said Professor Paola Borri from the School of Biosciences, who led the study at Cardiff University. “The next step for us will be to push the technique to detect nanodiamonds of even smaller sizes than what we have shown so far and to demonstrate a specific application in drug delivery.”
Nowadays there are companies that produce nanodiamonds including Ray technologies, NanoDiamond products and EMFUTUR Technologies. All produce nanodiamonds for industry and medicalThe future of nanodiamonds looks good and nanodiamonds could be the investment of the future.
