UNT Chemistry Professor Dr. Hao Yan and his research team are presenting their research into growing uniformly sized nanodiamonds at the Spring 2022 American Chemical Society Meeting in San Diego, CA, March 23, 2022. This important research has been lauded by the ACS through a special media briefing and a video interview with Dr. Yan and Tengteng Lyu, a chemistry Ph.D. student working with Dr. Yan.

Nanodiamonds are used in drug delivery, sensors, and quantum computer processors, meaning the size and their consistency is crucial. Prior to the Yan research group's successes, nanodiamonds were created using explosives. Unfortunately, the nanodiamonds were of various sizes that needed to be modified to be useful. For the first time, the Yan group researched a novel way to grow nanodiamonds that are extremely small and uniformly sized without using any type of explosives. The ability to produce these nanodiamonds should allow them to be relatively easily modified for their various uses, such as replacing a single atom among thousands of atoms necessary for successful quantum computers and telecommunication devices.

Schematic of the High-Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) Synthesis