Functional Diamond

Advances in Nanodiamonds: Fundamentals, Materials, and Emerging Applications

Nanodiamonds have evolved from an industrial abrasive into one of the most versatile carbon nanomaterials for biosensing and bioimaging. An inert, biocompatible sp³ core is wrapped in a chemically addressable surface that can be homogenized, grafted and coupled to virtually any biorecognition element. This single platform supports two powerful transduction families. In electrochemistry, boron-doped and nanocrystalline diamond electrodes offer the widest potential windows, lowest background currents and strongest antifouling behavior in electroanalysis, while nanodiamond modified composites amplify catalytic signals. In optics, fluorescent nanodiamonds hosting nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers provide photostable labels whose spin states report magnetic noise, temperature and redox chemistry at the nanoscale. This Collection covers the complete materials to device chain of nanodiamond biosensors.

Biosensing in real matrices such as blood, serum, sweat, saliva and food extracts demands interfaces that resist nonspecific adsorption while delivering sensitive, quantitative readout, a combination that conventional materials rarely achieve. Diamond based sensors meet this challenge from two directions. Electrochemical platforms have delivered femtomolar impedimetric aptasensing of viral antigens on nanodiamond assembled electrodes, eight decade electrochemiluminescence immunoassays on boron-doped diamond, and in situ dopamine quantification inside single living cells. In parallel, spin modulated NV fluorescence has enabled attomolar lateral flow diagnostics and single copy RNA detection, while T1 relaxometry reports free radicals inside living organelles and nanothermometry operates within working electrochemical devices. Advances in quantum grade particles, surface passivation and bottom up synthesis are now removing long standing barriers to deployable devices, making this the right moment to consolidate the field.

This Article Collection welcomes contributions spanning:

• synthesis, purification, deagglomeration and colloidal stabilization of detonation, HPHT, CVD and bottom up nanodiamonds;
• surface functionalization and biointerface design, including termination control, polymer coatings, bioconjugation and antifouling strategies;
• electrochemical biosensing with boron-doped and nanocrystalline diamond electrodes and nanodiamond modified or hybrid interfaces, including enzymatic, immunological, aptamer and molecularly imprinted sensors;
• NV based quantum sensing, including relaxometry, nanothermometry, magnetometry and spin enhanced diagnostics;
• bioimaging and tracking in cells, tissues and organisms, including near infrared and multimodal imaging;
• device integration, including fiber optic probes, portable and wearable formats and microfluidics;
• translational studies on standardization, reproducibility, biocompatibility and clinical validation.

Original research articles, communications, reviews and perspectives are invited.

Keywords: nanodiamonds; biosensing; nitrogen-vacancy centers; surface functionalization; bioimaging

­­All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 31 August 2027.

Please contact Lifang Shen at office@functionaldiamond.com with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please be sure to select "Advances in Nanodiamonds: Fundamentals, Materials, and Emerging Applications" from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

Dr. Zejun Deng is an Associate Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, and a fixed member of the State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy. He received his PhD from Institut Polytechnique de Paris in 2020 and subsequently worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Health Innovation and Technology, National University of Singapore. His research focuses on diamond and biosensing materials, including nanodiamonds and nitrogen-vacancy centers, boron-doped diamond electrodes, and electrochemical biosensors. He has published over 30 SCI papers, more than 20 of them as first or corresponding author in journals such as Carbon, ACS Nano, Chemical Science, Analytical Chemistry, Water Research and ACS Sensors. He serves as Secretary-General of the Electrochemical Functional Materials Branch of the Chinese Materials Research Society and as a Young Editorial Board Member of Functional Diamond and Sensors, and received the 2022 Functional Diamond Outstanding Young Scientist Award.

Dr. Qi Zhao is an Associate Professor at Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science. She received his PhD from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science in 2015. Her research focuses on nanodiamond-based materials for biomedical applications, especially in cancer therapy and bio-sensing. She has published over 30 papers as the first author or corresponding author in journals such as Applied Catalysis B, ACS Nano, Small, and Carbon. She has received research funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including the Young Scientists Fund and the General Program. She serves as Youth Council Member of the China Society of Imaging Science and Technology and as a Young Editorial Board Member of Functional Diamond, and received the 2022 Functional Diamond Outstanding Young Scientist Award.

Prof. Zhishan Yuan is a Professor and PhD supervisor at Guangdong University of Technology. His research focuses on extreme manufacturing, particularly solid-state nanopore sensing chips, microneedles for painless drug delivery and smart sensing, and offshore engineering equipment. He has published over 40 papers in journals such as ACS Nano and International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture and holds 35 granted invention patents. He has led 20 research projects, including projects supported by the National Key Research and Development Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He serves as Associate Editor of International Journal of Abrasive Technology and as a Young Editorial Board Member of International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing and Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering.