New one step functionalization of polycrystalline diamond films using amine derivatives

Diamond received tremendous interest for analytical sciences due to its intrinsic properties. However, the analytical perception of chemical environment requires surface functionalization that brings selectivity to the detection event. Thereby, many works focused on diamond modification using chemical or biochemical entities. We proposed here, a new and straightforward methodology for diamond (bio)functionalization. This method involves the chemical reaction between (bio)chemical entities presenting a primary amine moiety, used as grafting site, and hydrogenated diamond surface. This reaction allows in one step to modify diamond surface whatever its doping level and its crystalline quality. The effectiveness of this new method is exposed here through the grafting of one redox species, ferrocene, and of one biochemical, biotin. The impacts of both functionalization duration and pH are investigated and the robustness of the formed bond is demonstrated owing to biotin-avidin coupling.