Synthesis and characterization of biocompatible nanodiamond-silk hybrid material.

A new hybrid material consisting of nanodiamonds (NDs) and silk has been synthesized and investigated. NDs can contain bright fluorescence centers, important for bioprobes to image biological structures at the nanoscale and silk provides a transparent, robust matrix for these nanoparticles in-vivo or in-vitro. The ND-silk hybrid films were determined to be highly transparent in the visible to near infrared wavelength range. The NDs embedded in silk exhibited significant enhancement of emission relative to air, correlating with theoretical predictions. Furthermore, animal toxicity tests confirmed ND-silk films to be non-toxic in an in-vivo mice model.