Porous materials have been of high scientific and technological interest owing to their unique performances in many topical applications related to multiphasic functional systems: gas separation and storage, heterogeneous catalysis, energy conversion, etc. We review herein the synthetic strategies applied for using functionalized adamantane derivatives as polyhedral (mainly tetrahedral, Td-directing) building units of three-dimensional (3-D) porous supramolecular structures and nanomaterials, either purely organic or within metal hybrid frameworks. The resulting materials are currently used in varied heterogeneous (or supported) transition metal catalysis and organocatalysis, including recent high-value asymmetric synthesis. Characterization, synthetic applications and recycling properties of catalytic materials based on adamantane-scaffold are discussed. This review highlights the structuring advantages of variously functionalized-adamantanes to reach high surface area and controlled porosity for exploiting both confinement effects related to modified kinetics (compared to homogeneous) reactions, and pertinent chemo- and enantioselectivity issues.

The influence of sliding velocity on the adhesion force in a nanometer-sized contact was investigated with a novel atomic force microscope experimental setup that allows measuring adhesion forces while the probe is sliding at continuous and constant velocities. For hydrophobic surfaces, the adhesion forces (mainly van der Waals forces) remain constant, whereas for hydrophilic surfaces, adhesion forces (mainly capillary forces) decrease linearly with a logarithmic increase of the sliding velocity. The experimental data are well explained by a model based on a thermally activated growth process of a capillary meniscus.