Detonation of nanosized explosive: New mechanistic model for nanodiamond formation

•Novel approach to synthesize nanodiamonds by using nanostructured explosives•Synthesis of detonation nanodiamonds with a mean size of 2.8 nm•Decrease of the nanodiamond size with the size of the explosive particles

While nanodiamonds are synthesized by detonation of microstructured explosives since 50 years ago, we developed a novel approach to synthesize these particles by using nanostructured explosives. This new synthesis method leads to novel results not only in the control of the size, but also in the understanding of the nanodiamond synthesis and the detonation mechanisms. The use of explosive particles with size down to 40 nm results in the formation of detonation nanodiamonds with a mean size of 2.8 nm. In the light of these experiments, a model based on the size of the material involved during the detonation process has been developed to explain the size of the obtained nanodiamond. According to hypotheses based on the number of the nanodiamond nucleation sites, the experimental results are in favor of a decrease in the size of the nanodiamonds formed when the size of the explosive particles used during detonation is decreased.