Various nanoparticles play a prominent role in modern biosciences and medicine. Especially fluorescent cellular biomarkers are a prospective material for diagnostics and therapy. Nevertheless, most of the available biomarkers have some drawbacks due to either physical and optical or cytotoxic properties. Here we investigated the potential of green fluorescent nanodiamonds as extra- and intracellular biomarkers for living cells. We characterized the structure of the used detonation synthesized nanodiamonds (DND) by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the optical properties by fluorescence and infrared spectroscopy. For the extracellular attachment the nanodiamonds were functionalized by attaching antibodies that target extracellular structures such as membrane. Transfections were mediated by dendrimers, cationic liposomes and protamine sulfate. Using fluorescence microscopy, we confirmed successful extracellular binding on and transfection of the nanodiamonds into prostate cancer cells. Furthermore, nanodiamonds can be targeted selectively to intracellular structures. Therefore, nanodiamonds are a promising tool for biosensing

In the present study, a smart coating for light metal alloys was developed and investigated. Chemically activated nanodiamonds (CANDiT) were electrophoretically deposited onto anodized aluminum alloy AA2024 substrates in order to increase corrosion resistance, enhance bonding properties and establish a means of corrosion monitoring based on the fluorescence behavior of the particles. In order to create stable aqueous CANDiT dispersions suitable for electrophoretic deposition, mechanical milling had to be implemented under specific chemical conditions. The influence of the CANDiT volume fraction and pH of the dispersion on the electrochemical properties of the coated samples was investigated. Linear voltammetry measurements reveal that the chemical characteristics of the CANDiT dispersion have a distinct influence on the quality of the coating. The fluorescence spectra as well as fluorescence excitation spectra of the samples show that corrosion can be easily detected by optical means. Furthermore, an optimization on the basis of "smart" - algorithms for the data processing of a surface analysis by the laser-speckle-method is presented

Ultradisperse nanodiamonds can be implemented as nanoagents in materials and life sciences by chemical or biological activation. In this paper we show the potential of nanodiamonds for specific applications in the fields of corrosion resistance and cell biology. We demonstrate that nanodiamonds can be used to refine surfaces in order to improve corrosion resistance, to increase adhesion properties, or to establish an on-line surface analysis technique, e.g. for corrosion monitoring, based on their optical properties. We further applied ultradisperse nanodiamonds in cell biology. Our data show that nanodiamonds can be taken up by living cells via transfection in the presence of dendrimers. Upon functionalization with antibodies, nanodiamonds can be targeted to specific intracellular structures.

Over the past two decades, there has been a considerable amount of research about the structure and structure formation of metal-containing diamond-like carbon thin films, which is, of course, mainly due to the promising potential in the various fields of application mentioned above. There are a number of methods that are used for the preparation of carbon films containing metal nanoparticles, including pulsed laser deposition [28,29], integrated nanocluster deposition [30], filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition [31,32], ion beam co-sputtering [33,34,35], and DC [36,37] and RF magnetron sputtering [38,39].The analyses performed on metal-containing amorphous carbon films, of course, depend on the field of application that the researchers are aiming at. A number of the above groups investigate the influence of the metal on the tribological properties of the films [31,32,38], while others focus on the behaviour of the metal within the films, i.e. cluster formation and the corresponding cluster properties in dependence Recently, Corbella and co-workers published a study on the spontaneous forma-