Nanoskopie

The specific attributes of nanodiamonds have attracted increasing interest for electronics or biomedical applications. An efficient synthetic route towards nanodiamonds is via detonation of hexolite (i.e. a mixture of TNT [2,4,6-trinitrotoluene] and RDX [1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine]). In particular detonation of hexolite crystallized by spray flash evaporation (SFE), yields extremely small diamonds (< 4 nm). To unravel the detonation mechanism, a structural characterization of the explosives is required but is challenging due to their thermal instability. We demonstrate a combination of conventional Raman spectroscopy and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) for resolving morphological and structural differences of differently prepared hexolite nanocomposites. The experiments allow for the first time a structural differentiation of individual TNT and RDX crystals and 15-20 nm sized core-shell structures, consequently providing a general approach to investigate the actual composition of mixtures on the nanometer scale.