Nickel-catalyzed synthesis of nano-diamonds during the high-temperature chlorination of the layered structured bulk of Ti3C2 under atmospheric pressure

Due to the excellent properties of nanodiamonds (NDs), the synthesis of NDs under mild conditions is very attractive but still faces great challenges. In this work, we have developed a new strategy for synthesizing NDs under atmospheric pressure, which is realized by atmospheric chlorine-etching the Ti3C2/Ni composite, where the Ni catalyst is distributed among the Ti3C2 sheets in a high-stress state. The results have shown that when the prepared Ti3C2/Ni composite is chlorine-etched under atmospheric pressure, Ni has successfully catalyzed the synthesis of NDs, where various crystalline types of NDs can be observed. The Ni-catalytic synthesis of NDs is heavily dependent upon the pressing pressure, which is used in the preparation of Ti3C2/Ni composite, and a higher pressing pressure is beneficial to the NDs formation. Furthermore, the pressing pressure has also an important effect on the crystalline type of the catalytically synthesized NDs. This discovery may provide a new strategy for tailoring the type of NDs by the pressing pressure to meet specific application requirements in the future.