Vapor phase nucleation and sedimentation of dispersed nanodiamonds by MPCVD

Microwave plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) is a technique for preparing high-quality diamonds. However, the low yield and easy bonding between particles are drawbacks in the preparation of nanodiamond (ND). These issues are mainly caused by the adverse phenomena such as substrate nucleation and the continuous growth of particles. To inhibit these phenomena, diamond vapor phase nucleation (VPN) is realized by adjusting the spatial distribution of the carbon and hydrogen groups in plasma. In this environment, NDs nucleate, grow and fall on the disk. As such, dispersed nanodiamonds are obtained and the yield limit of MPCVD prepared NDs is broken. Further, we analyze and improve the VPN growth mechanism. This study presents a new mode of using MPCVD, which can be used to grow dispersed NDs. The development and improvement of this method is expected to provide higher quality NDs for drug transportation, biological imaging, and quantum light sources.