Preparation of highly dispersed and concentrated aqueous suspensions of nanodiamonds using novel diblock dispersants.

Hypothesis: Finding an efficient dispersant for obtaining a good dispersion of 5-nm detonation nanodiamond (DND) is always a challenge. Two newly designed diblock copolymers, both poly(ammonium methacrylate)-block-poly(2-phenoxyethyl acrylate) (PMA-b-PBEA) but with different molar ratios of PMA to PBEA, were proposed to be efficient dispersants in stabilizing the concentrated aqueous suspensions of DND.

Experiments: The dispersion efficiency of dispersants for DND in aqueous suspensions was studied by the measurements of particle size, sedimentation property, and rheological behavior.