Mechanosynthesis toolset is important new step toward the nanofactory

November 7, 2007 | Source: KurzweilAI

A set of nine molecular tools for diamond mechanosynthesis (molecular assembly) — a significant new step toward creating the nanofactory — was presented by Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle at Saturday’s Foresight Unconference.

The DCB6Ge dimer placement tool places two carbon atoms onto the C(110) face of a dehydrogenated diamond surface. © 2004 Robert A. Freitas Jr.  All Rights Reserved.

The DCB6Ge dimer placement tool places two carbon atoms onto the C(110) face of a dehydrogenated diamond surface. © 2004 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Using only carbon, hydrogen, and germanium atoms, the high-precision tools, developed during three years of intensive modeling and analysis of chemical reactions, are “simple enough, but flexible enough so that they open up a huge range of possibilities,” said Merkle. The tools could be used to create useful diamondoid materials (similar to diamond in strength, chemical inertness, or other important material properties), such as nanotubes, buckyballs, graphite, ceramic, and plastics, he said.

The nine tools in a minimal toolset for diamond mechanosynthesis, using only carbon, hydrogen, and germanium atoms. © 2007 Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle.  All Rights Reserved.

The nine tools in a minimal toolset for diamond mechanosynthesis, using only carbon, hydrogen, and germanium atoms. © 2007 Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle. All Rights Reserved.

Combined with programmable positional assembly, massively parallel positional assembly, and nanomechanical design, this technology could eventually allow for the construction of working diamondoid nanofactories, somewhat as depicted in the Burch-Drexler diamondoid nanofactory animation, according to Freitas. The goal of the Nanofactory Collaboration is to design, and ultimately to build, the first working diamondoid nanofactory.

“Perhaps by the 2020s, molecular manufacturing may begin to enable the construction of complex diamondoid medical nanorobots such as the microbivore, which would rapidly eliminate microbial infections and cancer,” Freitas suggests.

Freitas: "Microbivores could eliminate cancer by 2030." © 2001 Zyvex Corp.  Designer Robert Freitas, additional design Forrest Bishop.

Freitas: "Microbivores could eliminate cancer by 2030." © 2001 Zyvex Corp. Designer Robert Freitas, additional design Forrest Bishop.

The diamond mechanosynthesis toolset is described in a forthcoming paper by Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle, “A Minimal Toolset for Positional Diamond Mechanosynthesis,” in J. Comput. Theor. Nanosci. 4(2007). “We have proposals in the paper for building three of these tools using only current technology,” said Freitas.