uDiamond® nanodiamond is added to popular thermoplastics including PLA, PC, PA, PAI, PEEK, PTFE in order to enhance the performance. The popular Carbodeon uDiamond^® PLA is an example of what can be achieved: increased strength and toughness, wear properties and thermal conductivity without altering the electrical conductivity or colour.

Typical nanocomposite applications:

• Increasing abrasion resistance
• Increasing tensile strength and Young’s modulus
• Increasing fracture toughness
• Increasing thermal conductivity without affecting electrical isolation
• Reducing the coefficient of thermal expansion
• Extending both the high and low temperature limits of operation

Carbodeon co-development model

Carbodeon can offer uDiamond^® enhanced materials as thermoplastic granules/ pellets for injection molding or as filaments for 3D printing.

We work closely with our customers in order to ensure the product can achieve the targeted improvements.  Achieving a good dispersion of nanodiamond in the polymer is important, and may require the use of a compounding step using a twin screw extruder, a pre-combination of nanodiamond and other fillers in a milling process, or the addition of nanodiamond in a compatible solvent dispersion.  Carbodeon has direct experience in polymer nanocomposite formulation so please do contact us to discuss your application.

Nanodiamond polymer composites exhibit several different properties compared to the equivalent unmodified polymer.  The changes are due in part to the numerically high mechanical and thermal properties of diamond, and in part due to nanoscale effects obtained by dispersing small particles into the polymer material.  The surface functionalisation of the nanodiamond particles means they will interact with the polymer molecules, as well as any other filler materials present.  Particularly in the case of polymers containing fillers, the modification in properties is very high, even when extremely low amounts of nanodiamond are added.