Another way to think about diamandoids is to consider what kind of organic chemistry you need to put them together the “traditional” way. That’ll give you some insight into the processes you’re going to be competing with as you try to assemble these structures, no matter which technique you use. The syntheses tend to go by rearrangements of other scaffolds that are easier to assemble but somewhat less thermodynamically stable (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamantane#Production for example). However, this technique gets arduous beyond 4 or 5 adamantane units:
Another way to think about diamandoids is to consider what kind of organic chemistry you need to put them together the “traditional” way. That’ll give you some insight into the processes you’re going to be competing with as you try to assemble these structures, no matter which technique you use. The syntheses tend to go by rearrangements of other scaffolds that are easier to assemble but somewhat less thermodynamically stable (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamantane#Production for example). However, this technique gets arduous beyond 4 or 5 adamantane units:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamondoid
Agreed that the Nanoputians aren’t impressive. Lots of drugs are comparably complex, and they’re actually designed to elicit a biological effect.
The B12 synthesis is sweet, but I’ll put in a vote for the Woodward synthesis of strychnine (done using 1954 technology, no less!):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strychnine_total_synthesis#Woodward_synthesis
Yeah, Woodward was a real trailblazer (interestingly, my undergrad PI was one of his last students)