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Methods of optical dynamic nuclear polarization open the door to the replenishable hyperpolarization of nuclear spins, boosting their nuclear magnetic resonance/imaging signatures by orders of magnitude. Nanodiamond powder rich in negatively charged nitrogen vacancy defect centers has recently emerged as one such promising platform, wherein 13C nuclei can be hyperpolarized through the optically pumped defects completely at room temperature. Given the compelling possibility of relaying this 13C polarization to nuclei in external liquids, there is an urgent need for the engineered production of highly “hyperpolarizable” diamond particles. Here, a systematic study of various material dimensions affecting optical 13C hyperpolarization in diamond particles is reported on. It is discovered surprisingly that diamond annealing at elevated temperatures ∼1720 °C has remarkable effects on the hyperpolarization levels enhancing them by above an order of magnitude over materials annealed through conventional means. It is demonstrated these gains arise from a simultaneous improvement in NV− electron relaxation/coherence times, as well as the reduction of paramagnetic content, and an increase in 13C relaxation lifetimes. This work suggests methods for the guided materials production of fluorescent, 13C hyperpolarized, nanodiamonds and pathways for their use as multimodal (optical and magnetic resonance) imaging and hyperpolarization agents.

Defects introduced to synthetic type Ib diamond micrometer-size particles by electron-beam irradiation were studied by electron paramagnetic resonance and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy as a function of e-beam fluence and post-irradiation thermal annealing. Increasing electron-beam fluence causes a substantial reduction of the substitutional nitrogen (P1) content, accompanied by progressively higher concentrations of paramagnetic negatively charged vacancies (V−) and triplet interstitials (R1/R2). Annealing results in a drastic decrease in the V− and R1/R2 content and an increase in the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancies (NV− or W15). Analysis of PL spectra allows for identification of color centers in the irradiated diamond samples and following their evolution after annealing. These data facilitate understanding of different factors contributing to the formation of color centers in diamond and promote efforts toward controlled engineering of optical centers in fluorescent diamond particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methods of optical dynamic nuclear polarization open the door to the replenishable hyperpolarization of nuclear spins, boosting their nuclear magnetic resonance/imaging signatures by orders of magnitude. Nanodiamond powder rich in negatively charged nitrogen vacancy defect centers has recently emerged as one such promising platform, wherein 13C nuclei can be hyperpolarized through the optically pumped defects completely at room temperature. Given the compelling possibility of relaying this 13C polarization to nuclei in external liquids, there is an urgent need for the engineered production of highly "hyperpolarizable" diamond particles. Here, a systematic study of various material dimensions affecting optical 13C hyperpolarization in diamond particles is reported on. It is discovered surprisingly that diamond annealing at elevated temperatures ∼1720 °C has remarkable effects on the hyperpolarization levels enhancing them by above an order of magnitude over materials annealed through conventional means. It is demonstrated these gains arise from a simultaneous improvement in NV− electron relaxation/coherence times, as well as the reduction of paramagnetic content, and an increase in 13C relaxation lifetimes. This work suggests methods for the guided materials production of fluorescent, 13C hyperpolarized, nanodiamonds and pathways for their use as multimodal (optical and magnetic resonance) imaging and hyperpolarization agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of dielectric investigations of onion-like carbon (OLC) and detonation nanodiamond (DND)/polydimethysiloxane composites in wide frequency (20 Hz-3 THz) and temperatures (26-300 K) ranges are presented. The percolation threshold in OLC composites is 6.8 vol%. Electrical conduction in the OLC composites above the percolation threshold occurs mainly due to electron tunneling between OLC clusters and quasi-one-dimensional hopping inside the clusters. Hopping almost vanishes at frequencies above 100 GHz, where phonon contribution to the dielectric permittivity dominates. At low concentrations of nanocarbon particles (concentrations below the percolation threshold for OLC), the dielectric properties of the OLC and DND composites are similar. However, DNDs provide a noticeable improvement of the mechanical properties of the composites, in contrast with OLC. Therefore, a combination of the two nanomaterials in the composites could be beneficial. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:2084-2092, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineer [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method is presented for high-precision chemical detection that integrates quantum sensing with droplet microfluidics. Using nanodiamonds (ND) with fluorescent nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers as quantum sensors, rapidly flowing microdroplets containing analyte molecules are analyzed. A noise-suppressed mode of optically detected magnetic resonance is enabled by pairing controllable flow with microwave control of NV electronic spins, to detect analyte-induced signals of a few hundredths of a percent of the ND fluorescence. Using this method, paramagnetic ions in droplets are detected with low limit-of-detection using small analyte volumes, with exceptional measurement stability over >10 3 s. In addition, these droplets are used as microconfinement chambers by co-encapsulating ND quantum sensors with various analytes such as single cells, suggesting wide-ranging applications including single-cell metabolomics and real-time intracellular measurements from bioreactors. Important advances are enabled by this work, including portable chemical testing devices, amplification-free chemical assays, and chemical imaging tools for probing reactions within microenvironments.