Alexios Douvalis - "Hybrid Magnetic Nanostructures Based on Nanodiamonds: Synthesis, Characterization and Properties"

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are materials of significant importance, as they have the potential to be, or they are already used in a large area of applications, including new magnetic random access memory modules, spintronics, magnetic media for data storage, drug identifying and delivering,
as well as magnetic resonance imaging contrast enhancement and hyperthermia agents. On the other hand, nanodiamonds (NDs) are exceptional materials with extraordinary structural, mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties, which are exploited in a vast span of technical and technological
applications as motor lubricants, plating, coating and polymeric composite agents and catalysts, while they also show potential for electronic device applications. NDs have also been found to consist one of the most biocompatible substances, a property that has opened lately a large field of research and
applications in biomedicine. Blending these two types of nanomaterials in one rigid assembly can create a new class of hybrid nanostructures that will provide the properties of both combined structures and uncover new paths in research and applications.
The synthesis, using a combination of wet chemical methods and thermal annealing under vacuum, characterization, and study of the structural, morphological, and magnetic properties of a series of iron alloy-MNPs/NDs hybrid nanostructures will be presented. The results reveal that the
NDs nano-templates provide the necessary basis for developing extraordinary MNPs phases, which are difficult to, or cannot be formed without their presence. In this frame, the diffusional role of the carbon atoms in the surface graphitic layers of the NDs assemblies is suggested. By tuning the synthesis
conditions, a range of different iron alloy-MNPs/NDs hybrids can be produced, providing thus prospects for their future implementation following the needs and scopes of desired applications in a range of important technological fields.