ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly presents a few of the current and possible future applications of diamondoids and their derivatives. Because of their advantageous properties, especially with respect to thermal and chemical stability, they hold promise for a wide range of possible applications. The chapter focuses on diamondoids used as probes in oil and gas reservoir exploration. It explores advances in the use of diamondoids in chemistry, pharmaceutics, medicine, and biotechnology. The chapter also presents examples of the use of diamondoids in materials science and nanotechnology, and provides a brief outlook on possible future applications. Diamondoids found in petroleum sources result from carbocation rearrangements of organic precursors, for example multiringed terpene hydrocarbons deposited on clay mineral superacids. It has been suggested that during oil cracking, they are neither formed nor destroyed but conserved and their increased concentration can be used for estimating the extent of conversion of liquid to gas and pyrobitumen.
