Researchers have demonstrated how to control the «electron spin»
of a nanodiamond while it is levitated with lasers in a vacuum, an advance that could find applications in quantum information processing, sensors and studies into the fundamental physics of quantum mechanics.
«The great properties
of nanodiamond — lubricity, high thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity and stability, among others — are quite impressive,» said Taha - Tijerina.
The findings will likely guide future studies not only on the potential
of nanodiamonds in drug delivery but also on fighting bacteria and treating viral diseases.
To realize the potential
of nanodiamonds in the delivery of biomolecules using tRNA as a model, the team turned to Titan to shed a much - needed light on the underlying physics.
These parameters also helped researchers better characterize the nanodiamond - water interactions and tRNA dynamics in the presence
of nanodiamonds.
This opens a path for the application of our DNP technique to spins in and outside
of nanodiamonds.
Together with adiabatic rotations of the external magnetic fields or rotations
of the nanodiamonds leads to over 10,000-fold enhancement in the 13C polarization.
One of the challenges is the random orientation
of nanodiamonds in a solution which makes it difficult to achieve resonance with microwaves.
Severe challenges are posed by the random orientation
of the nanodiamonds and their nitrogen - vacancy centers.
Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown and an impact specialist, said the most provocative evidence for an extraterrestrial impact was the discovery
of nanodiamonds, microscopic bits of diamond formed only from the kind of intense pressure you'd get from a comet or meteorite slamming into the Earth.
Not exact matches
That's at least 100 times larger than the
nanodiamonds that form when planetary objects collide, and it's far larger than diamonds that form by condensing from carbon vapor inside clouds
of interplanetary gas and dust.
In addition to the lack
of any impact craters determined to have occurred around that time anywhere in the world, the radiocarbon dates
of the layer
of carbon, soot, charcoal,
nanodiamonds, microspherules and iridium, asserted to have been the result
of this catastrophic event, vary widely before and after the megafaunal extinction, anywhere from 14,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach professor in the College
of Engineering, and his research team from the Department
of Materials Science and Engineering, recently published their work — entitled «
Nanodiamonds Suppress Growth
of Lithium Dendrites» — in the journal Nature Communications.
The stone's noble gas content supports an extraterrestrial origin, while the presence
of tiny diamonds — larger than
nanodiamonds found in a common kind
of meteorite called chondrites, but similar in size to diamond aggregates known to be formed by impacts — supports a cometary origin.
Adding
nanodiamonds to the mix is kind
of like using a cheat code that slides each new block into the proper place to complete a line and prevent a menacing tower from forming.
Nanodiamonds have been used in the electroplating industry for some time as a way
of making metal coatings more uniform.
Drexel researchers have reported that adding
nanodiamonds to the electrolyte solution in lithium batteries can prevent the formation
of dendrites, the tendril - like deposits
of ions that can grow inside a battery over time and cause hazardous malfunctions.
In it, they describe a process by which
nanodiamonds — tiny diamond particles 10,000 times smaller than the diameter
of a hair — curtail the electrochemical deposition, called plating, that can lead to hazardous short - circuiting
of lithium ion batteries.
They report in the paper that mixing
nanodiamonds into the electrolyte solution
of a lithium ion battery slows dendrite formation to nil through 100 charge - discharge cycles.
Since RNA is hydrophilic, or «likes water,» the molecules on the
nanodiamond surface swell with excess hydration and weaken the heterogeneous dynamics
of the molecules.
By comparing the SNS neutron scattering data with the data from the team's molecular dynamics simulations on Titan, the researchers have confirmed that
nanodiamonds enhance the dynamics
of tRNA when in the presence
of water.
In a series
of papers, Firestone and his colleagues claimed various kinds
of evidence for the hypothesis, including deposits
of the element iridium (rare on Earth but abundant in meteorites), microscopic diamonds (called
nanodiamonds), and magnetic particles in deposits at sites supposedly dated to about 12,800 years ago.
And because their surfaces can be easily tailored to facilitate the attachment
of various medicinal molecules,
nanodiamonds have tremendous potential for the delivery
of a vast range
of therapies.
«Radiocarbon dating is a perilous process,» he contends, adding that the presence
of Clovis artifacts and mammoth bones just under the claimed iridium,
nanodiamond, and magnetic sphere deposits is a more reliable indicator that an extraterrestrial event was responsible for their disappearance.
«Diamonds that deliver: Neutrons, simulation analysis
of tRNA -
nanodiamond combo could transform drug delivery design principles.»
In tests, the researchers dispersed
nanodiamonds in mineral oil and found that a very small concentration — one - tenth
of a percent by weight — raised the thermal conductivity
of the oil by 70 percent at 373 kelvins (about 211 degrees Fahrenheit).
Levitating the
nanodiamonds in a vacuum enables precise control and rigorous measurement
of the floating particles.
This is a schematic
of an optical tweezer used in a vacuum chamber by Purdue University researchers, who controlled the «electron spin»
of a levitated
nanodiamond.
«We've shown how to continuously flip the electron spin in a
nanodiamond levitated in a vacuum and in the presence
of different gases,» said Tongcang Li, an assistant professor
of physics and astronomy and electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.
The technique exploits quantum effects in tiny diamond crystals, or «
nanodiamonds», to detect changes down to a few thousandths
of a degree.
The
nanodiamond thermometers also have potential uses in chemistry to monitor how heat flows affect chemical reactions, especially at the interface between two substances, says David Awschalom, a physicist at the University
of California in Santa Barbara, who led one
of the earlier studies demonstrating diamond - based thermometry.
«
Nanodiamonds are versatile platforms,» said Ho, who is also professor
of bioengineering and a member
of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the California NanoSystems Institute.
In the experiment, they could see that nearly every carbon atom
of the original plastic was incorporated into «
nanodiamonds» — small diamond structures up to a few nanometers wide.
Nanophase Carbon Materials (carbon nanotubes,
nanodiamond, nanocomposite]-- A form
of matter in which small clusters
of atoms form the building blocks
of a larger structure.
This result gives rise to the possibility
of using
nanodiamonds, suitably treated to attach themselves to targets that we would like to detect, as MRI markers for molecular imaging applications.
Los Alamos, New Mexico, Nov. 6, 2017 — For the first time in the U.S., time - resolved small - angle x-ray scattering (TRSAXS) is used to observe ultra-fast carbon clustering and graphite and
nanodiamond production in the insensitive explosive Plastic Bonded Explosive (PBX) 9502, potentially leading to better computer models
of explosive performance.
This high levels
of hyperpolarization, together with the long nuclear - spin polarization lifetimes in
nanodiamonds and the relatively high density
of 13C nuclei, turn functionalized and hyperpolarized
nanodiamonds into attractive MRI probes for molecular imaging both in vitro and in vivo.
«We developed a unique nanomechanical approach to precisely control and quantify the ultralarge elastic strain distributed in the
nanodiamond samples,» said Yang Lu, associate professor at Chinese University
of Hong Kong (CUHK).
United Kingdom About Blog The international and interdisciplinary forum, Fullerenes, Nanotubes, and Carbon Nanostructures, aims at publishing peer - reviewed research
of original work in all areas
of CARBON research including fullerenes, nanotubes,
nanodiamond, graphene, any type
of carbon nanostructure and any work dealing with carbon and carbon - related topics.
People including the scientists got way ahead
of their evidence, which was black mats and
nanodiamonds.
According to Richard Kerr's news item that accompanies the article in Science, at least some experts are skeptical that Kennett and others have really found
nanodiamonds, or that, even if they have, they are necessarily evidence
of an impact.