The significance of both good dispersion and interfacing nanodiamonds in the matrix has been recently acknowledged as a critical factor in improving nanodiamonds –polymer composites and should be further emphasized.
Many novel multifunctional nanodiamonds–polymer composites are still to be developed. A unique combination of properties has been provide by nanodiamonds should be more broadly explored in composites for electronics, packaging, membranes, biomedical applications, etc10,147,167–169. It can involve for example, tissue engineering scaffolds and biomedical polymer devices incorporating nanodiamonds to recount mechanical strength, bioimaging modality (due to luminescent nanodiamonds), drug delivery modality (by adsorption/desorption or chemical linking/release of the drugs to/from nanodiamonds), improve biomineralization, etc. Finally, synergism between nanodiamonds and other fillers should be explored. There is a handful of results in this area and it should be studied further. For example, incorporation of nanodiamonds in traditional epoxy–carbon fiber composites may reinforce the matrix between the fibers and thus increase the mechanical properties and failure tolerance of the composite170.
At the same time, the use of nanodiamonds for this purpose is clearly more advantageous than the use of CNTs or graphene nanoplatelets, because nanodiamonds can be introduced in higher concentrations without increasing the viscosity of the resin beyond processability limits, and small spherical nanodiamonds particles won’t be filtered by carbon fibers, allowing uniform infiltration and dispersion171. In first attempts, to strengthen the thermoplastic polymers, non-modified as-produced nanodiamonds were simply mixed with the polymers. It is shown that even in low concentrations and without surface functionalization, nanodiamonds sometimes can strengthen some thermoplastics. Although this “trial and error” approach aquire in early studies is not approved because the chances to attain the advancement are slim, it is still in use due to its simplicity172.
For example, improved elastic strain at uniaxial extension was noticed due to the addition of glass beads in combination with only
