Competencies & Technologies

Key competencies are:

- diamond thin film,

- CVD (chemical vapor deposition) synthesis,

- electrochemistry,

- water treatment process engineering,

- sensing processes,

- system engineering.

 

Diamond

Diamond is an exceptional material which fascinated human being since its discovery! From a technical point of view, natural or synthetic diamonds have unique mechanical, chemical, electrical and optical behaviors. For these reasons a great R&D effort has been invested worldwide since end 80s’ to develop processes for large scale synthetic polycrystalline diamond coating on appropriate substrates.

The diamond production technology at Adamant is based on CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition), a process in which the diamond synthesis occurs at high temperature from a gas mixture of hydrogen and methane.

The effort at Adamant is emphasized on large scale thin film coatings. The preferred substrate is silicon. The films can be intrinsic or doped with boron to obtain highly conductive material. This new produced material is called Boron Doped Diamond onto doped Silicon substrates (BDD/Si).These components are named Adamant®- Electrodes. 

They are used for environment friendly electrochemical treatment, electrosynthesis of strong oxidants, disinfection of fresh and wastewater and treatment and COD removal of wastewater.

Diamond Electrochemistry

Used as key component with suitable electrochemical methods, either as process or analytical applications, Adamant®-Electrodes have a huge potential. The high overpotentials where water is oxidized into oxygen and reduced to hydrogen give room to a lot of electrochemical interesting reactions for the water treatment with the DiaCell®-Systems and water quality sensing applications with the product range SenSys™.

 

This unique electrochemical property of doped-diamond and extremely high stabilities regarding pH, chemicals and high temperature (up to 600°C under oxygen), together with a low fouling behavior also makes this material of great interest for inorganic and organic chemical synthesis.

 

Working potential window of boron-doped diamond

compared to that of platinum

 

Special features of diamond in electrochemistry

  • extreme electrochemical window before water decomposition open new possibilities for both anodic and cathodic reactions 
       
  • high efficency of OH° radicals (2.8V/ENH), used for incineration of all kind of organics in water
       
  • complete oxidation of cyanides
       
  • ozone production without consumption of the diamond layer 
       
  • peroxodisulfates, peroxodicarbonate and hydrogen peroxide formation

A great advantage of boron-doped diamond electrodes, compared to other electrode materials, is their aptitude to support polarity reversal. This property is essential for water treatment applications, because it allows self-cleaning of the electrode surfaces.

 

Micro-structuring of Boron Doped Diamond or metallic thin coatings to design micro electrode array is a technology which brings new and interesting approaches for sensing applications. Microelectrode arrays packaged in robust sensors offer low background current and enhanced mass transfer representing the ideal combination for an innovative concept of online membraneless sensor for water quality sensing and monitoring.

 

Processes and systems for water management

By combining various disciplines such as electrochemistry for process engineering and sensor development, monitoring, design and material engineering, diamond technology, Adamant Technologies has the knowledge to offer solutions for a sustainable water management. 

These include novel processes to restore the usefulness of polluted water resources by wastewater treatment, based on improved and innovative electrochemical processes with boron-doped diamond electrodes or on-line quality monitoring microelectrode devices. 

Adamant Technologies integrates its treatment and monitoring products in fixed or mobile autonomous units of various sizes. These units are manufactured and sold either for industrial, leasure or evaluation purposes and can be customized upon request.