Self-assembling of detonation nanodiamond and control of the organization in PANI-based nanocomposites: A case study for a tailored shaping of specific 3D architectures

Detonation nanodiamond (DND) is characterized by very attractive properties, as the unusual values of surface energy and confinement effects. The objective of our research is to define methodologies for the tailored shaping of DND aggregates and the control of the architecture in DND-based nanocomposites. Self-standing microstructures with different shapes have been obtained by using different portions of the DND colloidal suspensions. Innovative composites based on DND inserted in PANI matrices are prepared by adding nanodiamond during chemical oxidative polymerization of ANI. The insertion of the nanosized fillers enables to obtain architectures with a high-degree of control over the polymer crystallinity. © 2010 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.