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Nanodiamonds are diamonds measuring about 3–4 nanometers in size that hold promise for applications in quantum technologies, sensor technology, and biomedicine. Until now, however, it has been challenging to produce them reliably with uniform size, high purity, and precisely tunable optical properties. An international team led by Dr. Yingke Wu and Prof. Tanja Weil from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has now developed a new synthesis method in which nanographene is directly converted into highly crystalline nanodiamonds under high pressure and high temperature. The results have now been published in Nature.
Nanodiamonds are tiny diamond particles only a few nanometres in size. Because they are chemically highly stable and can host so-called colour centres, optically active defects in the crystal lattice, they are considered promising materials for quantum technologies, sensing and biomedical research. Until now, however, it has been difficult to reliably produce nanodiamonds with uniform size, high purity and precisely integrated optical properties.
An international research team led by Dr Yingke Wu and Professor Tanja Weil at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has now developed a new synthesis strategy: instead of breaking larger diamonds down into smaller particles, the team builds nanodiamonds from the bottom up using molecularly defined nanographene building blocks. Under high pressure and at high temperatures, these flat carbon molecules are directly converted into diamond-like, highly crystalline nanostructures.
The key advantage of this bottom-up approach lies in its control at the molecular level. Because the structure, size and composition of the starting molecules are precisely defined, the properties of the resulting nanodiamonds can be controlled much more effectively than with conventional milling or top-down methods. Using this strategy, the team was able to produce particularly small, uniform nanodiamonds measuring around three to four nanometres.
Another important aspect is that optically active colour centres can be incorporated into the diamond lattice directly during synthesis. By using suitable molecular precursors, silicon- and germanium-based emitters can be generated without the need for subsequent ion implantation, irradiation or further post-treatment. This makes it possible to produce fluorescent nanodiamonds with tailored optical properties in a single synthesis step.
“We believe this platform offers a scalable foundation for developing quantum sensors, integrated photonic emitters and programmable diamond-based nanomaterials,” says Tanja Weil.
The new molecular nanodiamonds open up promising opportunities for applications in quantum technology, for example as stable single-photon sources or nanoscale sensors. They are also of interest for biological and medical research: in the long term, they could serve as robust optical reporters to visualise processes in cells or other biological environments at the smallest scales.
The findings of the international team have been published in Nature.
Participating institutions
The study involved the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the Leibniz Institute for New Materials, the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, the University of Cambridge, Saarland University, the University of Göttingen and Ulm University.
Yingke Wu
wuyingke@mpip-mainz.mpg.de
Tanja Weil
weil@mpip-mainz.mpg.de
Jiaxu Liang, Christopher P. Ender, Nancy C. Forero-Martinez, Ilyes Batatia, Jingyi Liu, Xin Yang, Raul Gonzalez Brouwer, Lev Kazak, Rémi Blinder, Leonardo Cancellara, Nadezda V. Tarakina, Yizhi Liu, Tobias Eklund, Mangalika Sinha, Sarah Köster, Shrikant Bhat, Fabian Rohmann, Andreas Tangemann, Kilian Lee Gallo, Rüdiger Berger, Robert Farla, Alexander Kubanek, Katrin Amann-Winkel, Manfred Wagner, Fedor Jelezko, Klaus Müllen, Gábor Csányi, Robinson Cortes-Huerto, Yingke Wu & Tanja Weil:
Bottom-Up Synthesis of Molecular Nanodiamond from Nanographene. Nature (2026).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10669-3
Nanodiamonds synthesized from molecular precursors exhibit higher purity and a narrower size distrib ...
Copyright: © Katharina Maisenbacher / MPI-P
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Nanodiamonds synthesized from molecular precursors exhibit higher purity and a narrower size distrib ...
Copyright: © Katharina Maisenbacher / MPI-P
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