Seeding slurries based on detonation nanodiamond in DMSO

Identification of a solvent where nanodiamond particles form stable colloids is very important for a variety of applications including seeding of a substrate for diamond film growth. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is one of the most powerful readily available organic solvents. We demonstrated that using DMSO as a solvent for detonation nanodiamonds (DND) provides significant advantages in achieving resistance to sedimentation in colloidal suspensions for DND with positive zeta potentials. Colloidal stability of DND with negative zeta potentials in DMSC, however, is low. Using DMSO allows for the effective fractionation of a variety of DNDs including those that cannot be fractionated using DI water, for example. as a solvent. We also present seeding results using different DMSO/alcohol seeding slurry compositions. Combination of DMSO and alcohol as a seeding slurry allows removal of the solvent without damaging uniformity of the seeds after their distribution over a substrate. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.