Conducting polymer/nanodiamond composites: New opportunities and scientific challenges for material science.

We present some recent results of a systematic study regarding polymer-based nanocomposites with carbon nanostructures as guest components. This paper is focused on the coupling of conductive polymers, as polyanilines and polythiophenes, with nanodiamond grains. The peculiar properties of such crystalline nanomaterial not only help in improving the mechanical and thermal properties of the host polymeric matrices, but also act on the polymerization mechanism, modifying the morphological features of the polymers. Triggered by the nanodiamond presence, the final nanocomposites show a prominent arrangement of polymer segments into tubular forms and a subsequent structural organization suitable for many technological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]