**Author details**

**4.5. DNWs in ultrasensitive force microscopy**

30 Nanowires - Synthesis, Properties and Applications

suitable for scanning probe applications [32].

carbon and sp3

**5. Conclusions and perspectives**

deposition, from sp2

continuous determination.

applications.

**Conflict of interest**

The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

Recently, Tao et al. described the utility of DNWs as tips for ultrasensitive force microscopy experiments [91]. Wherein, they have fabricated two types of tips using the upper and lower halves of a DNW by means of a top-down plasma etching technique and from a single-crystalline substrate. **Figure 9** demonstrates the integration of diamond nanowire tips on ultrasensitive silicon cantilevers. The typical lengths of those DNWs lie in few micrometers with diameters around 100 nm. Moreover, the tip radii were at the order of 10 nm, hence becoming

Attributed to the importance of DNWs, several efforts have been driven by experts to apply in diverse semiconductor and biological applications. In this way, those DNWs were effectively developed through different methods such as reactive-ion etching, chemical vapor

the template-assisted synthesis of DNWs seems to be impressive to produce highly precise nanostructures. On the other hand, the cost-effective wet chemical route still remains a challenging task in terms of reproducibility and obtaining the unique structures. From experimental and theoretical studies, it has been found that DNWs have the exceptional structural, mechanical, thermal conductivity, electronic and electrochemical properties. However, structural studies on hybrid G-DNWs require exclusive focus for future applications. Subsequently, those DNWs also possess the unique applications such as EFE device, high-performance NEM switches, conductivity and electrochemical biosensor and so on. However, with respect to practicality, those applications remain unsatisfied. For instance, the reported DNW-based electrochemical biomolecules monitoring was affected by its stability; hence, still it is a challenging task to fabricate the DNW-based device for real-time

So far, except the wet chemical route, the reported synthetic techniques for DNWs are costly, and hence their development is still a challenging task. Therefore, much effort needed to develop the DNWs at large scale, which can be attained by the collaboration of diverse technical fields such as electro-biochemistry, nanoelectronics and analytical techniques, etc. For example, attempts are needed to develop hybrid G-DNWs by the association of CVD and wet chemical pathways. Such investigations may direct the DNWs toward diverse opto-electronic

diamondoids and wet chemical route. Among them,

Muthaiah Shellaiah1 and Kien Wen Sun1,2\*

