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Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a current threat causing an increasing number of infections of difficult clinical management. While the overuse and misuse of antibiotics are investigated to reduce them, the need for alternatives to approaches is rising. Carbon-based materials shown recent moderate to high antibacterial properties and diamond, thanks to its superior mechanical, tribological, electrical, chemical and biological quality is a choice material to investigate for safe antibacterial films, coatings and particles. Here, the antibacterial properties of diamond films, nanodiamonds, DLC films and a comprehensive list of the composites developed from them are discussed along with a summary of the bacterial strains used and the most efficient composition and/or concentration discovered. In a later stage, the mechanisms of action and the parameters that are believed to influence them are discussed and finally, an overview of the biomedical and food industry applications is given.

The burgeoning multi-field applications of diamond concurrently bring up a foremost consideration associated with nitrogen. Ubiquitous nitrogen in both natural and artificial diamond in most cases ...

The solid solution system Nd2−xCexTi2O7 has been investigated. The solubility limit of Ce in Nd2−xCexTi2O7 was found to be 0·5–0·75 according to X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results. Ce substitution increases the b and c axes and the volume of the unit cell due to its larger ionic radius. Nd2−xCexTi2O7 (x = 0·05, 0·25, 0·5, 0·75) textured ceramics were fabricated using spark plasma sintering. The ferroelectric and dielectric properties of the ceramics were studied. Ce substitution decreases the Curie point Tc of Nd2−xCexTi2O7 compounds. The results suggest that the Tc of Ce2Ti2O7 is

Preliminary work is reported on 2-D and 3-D microstructures written directly with a Yb:YAG 1026 nm femtosecond (fs) laser on bulk chemical vapour deposition (CVD) single-crystalline diamond. Smooth graphitic lines and other structures were written on the surface of a CVD diamond sample with a thickness of 0.7mm under low laser fluences. This capability opens up the opportunity for making electronic devices and micro-electromechanical structures on diamond substrates. The fabrication process was optimised through testing a range of laser energies at a 100 kHz repetition rate with sub-500fs pulses. These graphitic lines and structures have been characterised using optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. Using these analysis techniques, the formation of sp2 and sp3 bonds is explored and the ratio between sp2 and sp3 bonds after fs laser patterning is quantified. We present the early findings from this study and characterise the relationship between the graphitic line formation and the different fs laser exposure conditions.