Bottom-up synthesis of molecular nanodiamond from nanographene.

Abstract

Nanodiamonds hosting colour centres are promising building blocks for quantum technologies, enabling advances in quantum computation^1,2, nanoscale NMR spectroscopy^3-6, single-spin magnetometry^7,8, wide-field quantum imaging⁹ and single-photon sources^10,11. However, the controlled bottom-up synthesis of ultrasmall and structurally uniform nanodiamonds has remained a challenge, with existing methods producing heterogeneous materials that vary in size, morphology, impurity content and defect quality. Here we show that well-defined, hydrogen-terminated molecular nanographenes serve as chemically confined precursors for high-pressure, high-temperature synthesis of ultrasmall (3-4 nm), monodisperse and highly crystalline molecular nanodiamonds with only a single sp² surface reconstruction and produced on a milligram scale. The same bottom-up platform also enables a two-component strategy for incorporating silicon- and germanium-based colour centres during synthesis, yielding SiV^- and GeV^- emitters without ion implantation, irradiation or post-treatment. Because the nanographene precursor defines both the confined carbon framework and the hydrogen content, this approach provides intrinsic, precursor-level control over nanodiamond size and composition, particularly in the low-nanometre regime relevant for biological and quantum sensing. Molecular nanographenes, ultralarge polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, therefore, establish a scalable and modular route to high-quality molecular and fluorescent nanodiamonds and offer a general design principle for tailored quantum materials and nanoscale devices.