Steric Interaction of Polyglycerol-Functionalized Detonation Nanodiamonds

Detonation nanodiamonds have found numerous potential applications in a diverse array of fields such as biomedical imaging and drug delivery. Here, we systematically characterized non-functionalized and polyglycerol-functionalized detonation nanodiamond particles (DNPs) dispersed in aqueous suspensions at different ionic strengths (similar to 1.0 x 10(-7) to 1.0 x 10(-2) M) via dynamic light scattering and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. For these colloidal suspensions, the total potential energies of interactions between a pair of DNPs were theoretically calculated using the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory plus the fitting of the Boltzmann distribution to the interparticle spacing distribution of the colloidal DNPs. These investigations revealed that the non-functionalized DNPs are dispersed in aqueous media through the long-range (>10 nm) and weak (<7 k(B)T) electrical double-layer repulsive interaction, while the driving force on dispersion of polyglycerol-functionalized DNPs is mostly derived from the short-range (<2 nm) and strong (similar to 55 k(B)T) steric repulsive potential barrier generated by the polyglycerol. Moreover, our results show that the truly monodispersed and individually dispersed DNP colloids, forming no aggregates in aqueous suspensions, are available by both functionalizing DNPs by polyglycerol and increasing ionic strength of suspending media to greater than or similar to 1.0 x 10(-2) M.

Automated summary

Detonation nanodiamonds have promising applications in various fields. This study characterized the dispersion of non-functionalized and polyglycerol-functionalized DNPs in aqueous suspensions at different ionic strengths. The results showed that functionalized DNPs and increased ionic strength can lead to monodisperse and non-aggregated DNP colloids.