Diamond Nanowires: A Recent Success Story for Biosensing

Carbon-based nanostructures have been of both fundamental and technological interest over the last decades, because their special characteristics were found to differ markedly from their corresponding bulk states in physical and chemical performance. A vast majority of work has been devoted to carbon nanotubes (CNTs). This is not only related to their unique mechanical and electrical properties, but also to the advances in synthetic methods that allow CNTs to be produced in large quantities with reasonably controllable morphologies. While much less studied than CNTs, diamond nanowires, the diamond analogues of CNTs, hold promise for several important applications. Diamond nanowires display several advantages such as chemical inertness, mechanical strength, high thermal and electrical conductivity, together with proven biocompatibility and ease to functionalize their surface. The unique physicochemical properties of diamond nanowires have generated wide interest for their use as fillers in nanocomposites, as light detectors and emitters, as substrates for nanoelectronic devices and as electrochemical sensors. The present chapter is focused on the promising synthetic routes and potential applications of diamond nanowires and related nanostructures in electrochemical sensing.