Nanodiamonds for device applications: An investigation of the properties of boron-doped detonation nanodiamonds

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 3270 - 10
• Main Authors: Afandi, Abdulkareem, Howkins, Ashley, Boyd, Ian W., Jackman, Richard B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.02.2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 140/146; 639/166/987; 639/301/357; Boron; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Nanoparticles; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spectroscopy
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-21670-w

The inclusion of boron within nanodiamonds to create semiconducting properties would create a new class of applications in the field of nanodiamond electronics. Theoretical studies have differed in their conclusions as to whether nm-scale NDs would support a stable substitutional boron state, or whether such a state would be unstable, with boron instead aggregating or attaching to edge structures. In the present study detonation-derived NDs with purposefully added boron during the detonation process have been studied with a wide range of experimental techniques. The DNDs are of ~4 nm in size, and have been studied with CL, PL, Raman and IR spectroscopies, AFM and HR-TEM and electrically measured with impedance spectroscopy; it is apparent that the B-DNDs studied here do indeed support substitutional boron species and hence will be acting as semiconducting diamond nanoparticles. Evidence for moderate doping levels in some particles (~10 17 B cm −3 ), is found alongside the observation that some particles are heavily doped (~10 20 B cm −3 ) and likely to be quasi-metallic in character. The current study has therefore shown that substitutional boron doping in nm NDs is in fact possible, opening-up the path to a whole host of new applications for this interesting class of nano-particles.