Adamantane is an organic compound with formula C10H16 or, more descriptively, (CH)4(CH2)6. Adamantane molecules can be described as the fusion of three cyclohexane rings. The molecule is both rigid and virtually stress-free. Adamantane is the most stable isomer of C10H16. The spatial arrangement of carbon atoms in the adamantane molecule is the same as in the diamond crystal. This similarity led to the name adamantane, which is derived from the Greek adamantinos (relating to steel or diamond).Alexander Senning. Elsevier's Dictionary of Chemoetymology. Elsevier, 2006, p. 6 . It is a white solid with a camphor-like odor. It is the simplest diamondoid.
The discovery of adamantane in petroleum in 1933 launched a new field of chemistry dedicated to the synthesis and properties of polyhedral organic compounds. Adamantane derivatives have found practical application as drugs, polymeric materials, and thermally stable lubricants.
The first attempted laboratory synthesis was made in 1924 by German chemist Hans Meerwein using the reaction of formaldehyde with diethyl malonate in the presence of piperidine. Instead of adamantane, Meerwein obtained 1,3,5,7-tetracarbomethoxybicyclo3.3.1nonane-2,6-dione: this compound, later named Meerwein's ester, was used in the synthesis of adamantane and its derivatives. D. Bottger tried to obtain adamantane using Meerwein's ester as precursor. The product, tricyclo-3.3.1.13,7, was not adamantane, but a derivative.Coffey, S. and Rodd, S. (eds.) (1969) Chemistry of Carbon Compounds. Vol 2. Part C. Elsevier Publishing: New York.
Other researchers attempted to synthesize adamantane using phloroglucinol and derivatives of cyclohexanone, but also failed.
Adamantane was first synthesized by Vladimir Prelog in 1941 from Meerwein's ester. With a yield of 0.16%, the five-stage process was impractical (simplified in the image below). The method is used to synthesize certain derivatives of adamantane.
Prelog's method was refined in 1956. The decarboxylation yield was increased by the addition of the Hunsdiecker pathway (11%) and the Hoffman reaction (24%) that raised the total yield to 6.5%. The process was still too complex, and a more convenient method was found in 1957 by Paul von Ragué Schleyer: dicyclopentadiene was first hydrogenation in the presence of a catalyst (e.g. platinum dioxide) to give tricyclodecane and then transformed into adamantane using a Lewis acid (e.g. aluminium chloride) as another catalyst. This method increased the yield to 30–40% and provided an affordable source of adamantane; it therefore stimulated characterization of adamantane and is still used in laboratory practice. The adamantane synthesis yield was later increased to 60% and 98% by ultrasound and superacid catalysis. Today, adamantane is an affordable chemical compound with a cost of one or two USD per gram.
All the above methods yield adamantane as a polycrystalline powder. Using this powder, single crystals can be grown from the melt, solution, or vapor phase (e.g. with the Bridgman–Stockbarger technique). Melt growth results in the worst crystalline quality with a mosaic spread in the X-ray reflection of about 1°. The best crystals are obtained from the liquid phase, but the growth is impracticably slow – several months for a 5–10 mm crystal. Growth from the vapor phase is a reasonable compromise in terms of speed and quality. Adamantane is sublimed in a quartz tube placed in a furnace, which is equipped with several heaters maintaining a certain temperature gradient (about 10 °C/cm for adamantane) along the tube. Crystallization starts at one end of the tube, which is kept near the freezing point of adamantane. Slow cooling of the tube, while maintaining the temperature gradient, gradually shifts the melting zone (rate ~2 mm/hour), producing a single-crystal boule.
Petroleum remains a source of adamantane; the content varies from between 0.0001% and 0.03% depending on the oil field and is too low for commercial production. Special practical problem for the students of IV year. Department of Petroleum Chemistry and Organic Catalysis MSU.
Petroleum contains more than thirty derivatives of adamantane. Their isolation from a complex mixture of hydrocarbons is possible due to their high melting point and the ability to distill with water vapor and form stable with thiourea.
At ambient conditions, adamantane crystallizes in a face-centered cubic structure (space group Fm3m, a = 9.426 ± 0.008 Angstrom, four molecules in the unit cell) containing orientationally disordered adamantane molecules. This structure transforms into an ordered, primitive, tetragonal phase ( a = 6.641 Angstrom, c = 8.875 Angstrom) with two molecules per cell, either upon cooling to 208 K or pressurizing to above 0.5 GPa.
This phase transition is of the first order; it is accompanied by an anomaly in the heat capacity, elastic, and other properties. In particular, whereas adamantane molecules freely rotate in the cubic phase, they are frozen in the tetragonal one; the density increases stepwise from 1.08 to 1.18 g/cm3, and the entropy changes by a significant amount of 1594 J/(mol·K).
Mass spectra of adamantane and its derivatives are rather characteristic. The main peak at m/ z = 136 corresponds to the ion. Its fragmentation results in weaker signals as m/ z = 93, 80, 79, 67, 41 and 39.
The infrared absorption spectrum of adamantane is relatively simple because of the high symmetry of the molecule. The main absorption bands and their assignment are given in the table:
The adamantane molecule is composed of only carbon and hydrogen and has Td symmetry. Therefore, its 16 hydrogen and 10 carbon atoms can be described by only two sites, which are labeled in the figure as 1 (4 equivalent sites) and 2 (6 equivalent sites).
Structural relatives of adamantane are noradamantane and homoadamantane, which respectively contain one less and one more CH2 link than the adamantane.
The functional group derived from adamantane is adamantyl, formally named as 1-adamantyl or 2-adamantyl depending on which site is connected to the parent molecule. Adamantyl groups are a bulky pendant group used to improve the thermal and mechanical properties of polymers.
The dication of 1,3-didehydroadamantane was obtained in solutions of . It also has elevated stability due to the phenomenon called "three-dimensional aromaticity"
The Carbonyl of adamantanone allows further reactions via the bridging site. For example, adamantanone is the starting compound for obtaining such derivatives of adamantane as 2-adamantanecarbonitrile 2-Adamantanecarbonitrile Organic Syntheses, Coll. Vol. 6, p. 41 (1988); Vol. 57, p. 8 (1977). and 2-methyl-adamantane.
Boiling of adamantane with bromine results in a monosubstituted adamantane, 1-bromadamantane. Multiple substitution with bromine is achieved by adding a Lewis acid catalyst.
The rate of bromination is accelerated upon addition of Lewis acids and is unchanged by irradiation or addition of free radicals. This indicates that the reaction occurs via an ionic mechanism.
Nitration of adamantane is a difficult reaction characterized by moderate yields. A nitrogen-substituted drug amantadine can be prepared by reacting adamantane with bromine or nitric acid to give the bromide or nitroester at the 1-position. Reaction of either compound with acetonitrile affords the acetamide, which is hydrolyzed to give 1-adamantylamine:
In solid-state NMR spectroscopy, adamantane is a common standard for chemical shift referencing.
In , adamantane may be used to extend the life of the gain medium; it cannot be photoionisation under atmosphere because its absorption bands lie in the vacuum UV region of the spectrum. Photoionization energies have been determined for adamantane as well as for several bigger diamondoids.
Influenza virus strains have developed drug resistance to amantadine and rimantadine, which are not effective against prevalent strains as of 2016.
Conjoining adamantane cages produces higher diamondoids, such as diamantane (C14H20 – two fused adamantane cages), triamantane (C18H24), tetramantane (C22H28), pentamantane (C26H32), hexamantane (C26H30), etc. Their synthesis is similar to that of adamantane and like adamantane, they can also be extracted from petroleum, though at even much smaller yields.
Natural occurrence
Physical properties
Structure
Hardness
Spectroscopy
* Legends correspond to types of oscillations: δ – deformation, ν – stretching, ρ and ω – out of plane deformation vibrations of CH2 groups.
444 δ(CCC) 638 δ(CCC) 798 ν(C−C) 970 ρ(CH2), ν(C−C), δ(HCC) 1103 δ(HCC) 1312 ν(C−C), ω(CH2) 1356 δ(HCC), ω(CH2) 1458 δ(HCH) 2850 ν(C−H) in CH2 groups 2910 ν(C−H) in CH2 groups 2930 ν(C−H) in CH2 groups
Optical activity
Nomenclature
Chemical properties
Adamantane cations
Reactions
Bromination
Fluorination
Carboxylation
Oxidation
Others
Uses
In medicine
In designer drugs
Spacecraft propellant
Potential technological applications
Adamantane analogues
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