Fluorescence of nanodiamonds under the influence of surfactants

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study of the influence of interactions of detonation nanodiamonds with surfactants in water on the surface fluorescence of nanodiamonds. The surfactants are found to be capable of shielding of the nanodiamonds’ surface from the quenching influence of water. The resulting changes of the fluorescence are much more pronounced for the nanodiamonds which initial interactions with water were strong. If the water quenching effect was small, the certain types of interactions of nanodiamonds with surfactant dependent on the surfactants micellar properties can even lead to a decrease in the fluorescence intensity. Consideration of the detected effect of amphiphilic molecules on the fluorescence intensity of nanodiamonds must be taken into account when suspending them with the help of surfactants, as well as in the case of using nanodiamonds as theranostic agents.

Keywords:

• Nanodiamonds
• surfactants
• aqueous suspensions
• fluorescence

Acknowledgements

The authors are sincerely grateful to O. Shenderova for the providing of studied nanodiamonds.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Additional information

Funding

This study has been performed at the expense of Russian Science Foundation [project No 17-12-01481] (I.V.P., S.A.B., T.A.D. – preparation and characterization of samples, planning and conducting of the experiment with DND suspensions without surfactants, discussion of results) and partially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR [project No 18-32-00779 mol_a] (A.M.V. – conducting of the experiment with DND suspensions with surfactants, analysis and discussion of results).