Researchers, including Kang Xu, Daniela Pagliero, and Carlos A. Meriles, have used diamond, a material known for its chemical stability, to induce electrons into solvents. Traditionally, inducing electrons into water ofter requires ultraviolet light. However, this study found that by engineering diamond surfaces to include shallow nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, it is possible to generate photocurrents in water at visible light.

The team discovered that these NV centers, along with other defects on the diamond surface, play a key role in the injection of electrons into wate. This finding is significant because it could lead to new applications of diamond in chemical processes and quantum technologies, where controlling electron flow at the solid-liquid interface is crucial.

An important aspect of this research was the use of Quantum Foundry products—specially designed diamond plates with shallow NV centers—which were critical for observing and understanding the photoinduced charge injection processes in this study.