Scientists Find Big Hope in Tiny Diamonds

By Jim DeBrosse

DAYTON — They’re extremely tiny but very tough — manufactured diamonds so small that 8,000 in a line would hardly match the thickness of a human hair.

Nanodiamonds ("nano" comes from the Greek word for "dwarf") have potential applications for industrial polishing and grinding and as a hardening agent in nickel-based coatings that would be more durable and less costly than chrome.

But now their possibilities for biomedical use have become more attractive — perhaps as magic bullets for carrying drugs or genes and tiny robots for performing cell repairs, or in stronger coatings for artificial joints and bones — thanks to researchers at the University of Dayton and Wright-Patterson’s Air Force Research Laboratory.

In a study published last month in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Physical Chemistry B, the Daytonarea partners found that nanodiamonds are not toxic to a variety of rodent cell types and that those cells can indeed survive on nanodiamond- covered surfaces. The study received funding from Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

The next step is to test nanodiamonds in animal and human trials. UD and the AFRL are hoping to collaborate on those studies as well.

"This (study) is just a start," said Liming Dai, a materials engineering and chemistry professor at UD. "We would really like to move further into the biological side" of nanotechnology.