Diamondoid

In chemistry, diamondoids are generalizations of the carbon cage molecule known as adamantane (C10H16), the smallest unit cage structure of the diamond crystal lattice. Diamondoids also known as nanodiamonds or condensed adamantanes may include one or more cages (adamantane, diamantane, triamantane, and higher polymantanes) as well as numerous isomeric and structural variants of adamantanes and polymantanes. These diamondoids occur naturally in petroleum deposits and have been extracted and purified into large pure crystals of polymantane molecules having more than a dozen adamantane cages per molecule.[1] These species are of interest as molecular approximations of the diamond cubic framework, terminated with C−H bonds.

  1. ^ Dahl, J. E.; Liu, S. G.; Carlson, R. M. K. (3 January 2003). "Isolation and Structure of Higher Diamondoids, Nanometer-Sized Diamond Molecules". Science. 299 (5603): 96–99. doi:10.1126/science.1078239. PMID 12459548. S2CID 46688135.