Adsorption behavior and reduction of copper (II) acetate on the surface of detonation nanodiamond with well defined surface chemistry

We report a novel wet chemistry route to metal coated nanodiamond particles. The technique includes adsorption of copper (II) acetate followed by reduction with hydrazine. To understand factors influencing the adsorption of the copper salt, nanodiamonds with different and well defined chemistries have been synthesized. The interaction of copper ions with NDs was studied by means of adsorption isotherms revealing different behavior depending on nanodiamond surface chemistry. Reduction of copper ions adsorbed on nanodiamond yields nanodiamond particles encapsulated into copper shells (ND@Cu). Using this technique, we can achieve up to 7.5 wt% of metallic copper on the nanodiamond surface, which is 3 times higher than reported so far. Synthesized copper coated nanodiamond particles will be used as a convenient nanofiller to reinforce copper and other metals with nanodiamond.