Conductive boron-doped diamond powder/nanoparticles for electrochemical applications

Abstract

Boron-doped diamond powder (BDDP) and boron-doped nanodiamond (BDND) were developed with the aim of expanding the area of application of conductive diamond electrodes. BDDP and BDND are conductive diamond powders obtained by depositing a boron-doped diamond (BDD) layer on the surface of diamond powder (DP) and nanodiamond (ND) substrates, respectively, by using the chemical vapor deposition method. As the particle size of BDDP depends on that of the DP substrate, it can be arbitrarily selected in the range of at least submicrometer to several micrometers. BDDP can be used for an electrode material of screen-printed diamond electrode, which is a disposable and sensitive electrode for electrochemical detection even from biological fluids. BDDP can also be applied to a durable cathode catalyst support of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell. BDND is a conductive diamond particle with a large specific surface area of 650m2/g or more, and is expected to be used as an electrode material for aqueous electric double-layer capacitors with a large cell voltage leading to high energy and high-power densities. BDDP and BDND are highly versatile functional electrode materials that can be made into inks and pastes, and can be combined easily with other compounds. Therefore, they should be useful for greatly expanding the application fields of diamond electrodes.