Transcript Main title

Molecular Nanotechnology
www.zyvex.com/nano
Ralph C. Merkle
Principal Fellow, Zyvex
www.merkle.com
In Fiscal Year 1999, the federal
government will spend approximately
$230 million on nanotechnology
research.
Nick Smith, Chairman
House Subcommittee on Basic Research
June 22, 1999
National Nanotechnology Initiative
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Announced by Clinton at Caltech
Interagency (AFOSR, ARO, BMDO, DARPA,
DOC, DOE, NASA, NIH, NIST, NSF, ONR, and
NRL)
FY 2001: $497 million
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/html/20000121_4.html
Academic and Industry
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Caltech’s MSC (1999 Feynman Prize), Rice CNST
(Smalley), USC Lab for Molecular Robotics, etc
Private nonprofit (Foresight, IMM)
Private for profit (IBM, Zyvex)
And many more….
There is a growing sense in the scientific
and technical community that we are
about to enter a golden new era.
Richard Smalley
1996 Nobel Prize, Chemistry
http://www.house.gov/science/smalley_062299.htm
The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not
speak against the possibility of maneuvering things
atom by atom.
It is not an attempt to violate any laws; it is something,
in principle, that can be done; but in practice, it has not
been done because we are too big.
Richard Feynman, 1959
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html
The book that laid out the technical argument for
molecular nanotechnology:
Nanosystems
by K. Eric Drexler, Wiley 1992
Three historical trends
in manufacturing
More
flexible
More precise
Less expensive
The limit of these trends:
nanotechnology
 Fabricate
most structures consistent with
physical law
 Get essentially every atom in the right place
 Inexpensive (~10-50 cents/kilogram)
http://www.zyvex.com/nano
It matters how atoms
are arranged
 Coal
 Diamonds
 Sand
 Computer
 Dirt,
 Grass
water
and air
chips
Today’s manufacturing methods
move atoms in statistical herds
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Casting
Grinding
Welding
Sintering
Lithography
Possible
arrangements of
atoms
.
What we can make today
(not to scale)
The goal:
a healthy bite.
.
Today
Overview of the
development of
molecular
nanotechnology
Produc
Products
Core molecular
Products
Products
manufacturing
Products
capabilities
Products Products
Products
Products
Products Products
Products Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Produc
Products
Products Products
Products
Terminological caution
“Nanotechnology” has been applied to
almost any research where some
dimension is less than a micron
(1,000 nanometers) in size.
Example: sub-micron optical lithography
Two more
fundamental ideas
 Self
replication (for low cost)
 Positional assembly (so molecular
parts go where we want them to go)
Von Neumann architecture
for a self replicating system
Universal
Computer
Universal
Constructor
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/vonNeumann.html
Drexler’s architecture for an
assembler
Molecular
computer
Molecular
constructor
Positional device
Tip chemistry
Illustration of an assembler
http://www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6.html
The theoretical concept of machine duplication is
well developed. There are several alternative
strategies by which machine self-replication can be
carried out in a practical engineering setting.
Advanced Automation for Space Missions
Proceedings of the 1980 NASA/ASEE Summer
Study
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRepNASA.html
A C program that prints out an
exact copy of itself
main(){char q=34, n=10,*a="main() {char
q=34,n=10,*a=%c%s%c;
printf(a,q,a,q,n);}%c";printf(a,q,a,q,n);}
For more information, see the Recursion Theorem:
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html
English translation:
Print the following statement twice, the second
time in quotes:
“Print the following statement twice, the second
time in quotes:”
Complexity of self replicating
systems (bits)
C program
800
Von Neumann's universal constructor500,000
Internet worm (Robert Morris, Jr., 1988)
500,000
Mycoplasma capricolum
1,600,000
E. Coli
9,278,442
Drexler's assembler
100,000,000
Human
6,400,000,000
NASA Lunar
Manufacturing Facility
over 100,000,000,000
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html
How cheap?
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Potatoes, lumber, wheat and other agricultural
products are examples of products made using a
self replicating manufacturing base. Costs of
roughly a dollar per pound are common.
Molecular manufacturing will make almost any
product for a dollar per pound or less,
independent of complexity. (Design costs,
licensing costs, etc. not included)
How long?
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The scientifically correct answer is: I don’t know
Trends in computer hardware suggest the 2010 to
2020 time frame
Of course, how long it takes depends on what we
do
Developmental pathways
Scanning probe microscopy
 Self assembly
 Progressively smaller positional assembly
 Hybrid approaches
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Moving molecules with an SPM
(Gimzewski et al.)
http://www.zurich.ibm.com/News/Molecule/
Self assembled DNA octahedron
(Seeman)
http://seemanlab4.chem.nyu.edu/nano-oct.html
DNA on an SPM tip
(Lee et al.)
http://stm2.nrl.navy.mil/1994scie/1994scie.html
Buckytubes
(Tough, well defined)
Buckytube glued to SPM tip
(Dai et al.)
http://cnst.rice.edu/TIPS_rev.htm
Building the tools to build the tools
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Directly manufacturing a diamondoid assembler
using existing techniques appears very difficult .
We’ll have to build intermediate systems able to
build better systems able to build diamondoid
assemblers.
If we can make
whatever we want
what
do we want
to make?
Diamond Physical Properties
Property
Diamond’s value
Comments
Chemical reactivity
Hardness (kg/mm2)
Thermal conductivity (W/cm-K)
Tensile strength (pascals)
Compressive strength (pascals)
Band gap (ev)
1.4
Resistivity
(W-cm)
Density (gm/cm3)
Thermal Expansion Coeff (K-1)
Refractive index
Coeff. of Friction
Extremely low
9000
20
3.5 x 109 (natural)
1011 (natural)
5.5
CBN: 4500 SiC: 4000
Ag: 4.3 Cu: 4.0
1011 (theoretical)
5 x 1011 (theoretical)
Si: 1.1 GaAs:
1016 (natural)
3.51
0.8 x 10-6
2.41 @ 590 nm
0.05 (dry)
SiO2: 0.5 x 10-6
Glass: 1.4 - 1.8
Teflon: 0.05
Source: Crystallume
Strength of diamond
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Diamond has a strength-to-weight ratio over 50 times
that of steel or aluminium alloy
Structural (load bearing) mass can be reduced by
about this factor
When combined with reduced cost, this will have a
major impact on aerospace applications
A hydrocarbon bearing
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/bearingProof.html
Neon pump
A planetary gear
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/gearAndCasing.html
A proposal for a molecular positional
device
Classical uncertainty
kbT
 
k
2
σ:
k:
kb:
T:
mean positional error
restoring force
Boltzmann’s constant
temperature
A numerical example of classical
uncertainty
kbT
 
k
2
σ:
k:
kb:
T:
0.02 nm (0.2 Å)
10 N/m
1.38 x 10-23 J/K
300 K
Born-Oppenheimer approximation
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A carbon nucleus is more than 20,000 times as
massive as an electron, so it will move much
more slowly
Assume the atoms (nuclei) are fixed and
unmoving, and then compute the electronic wave
function
If the positions of the atoms are given by r1, r2, ....
rN then the energy of the system is: E(r1, r2, .... rN)
This is fundamental to molecular mechanics
Quantum positional uncertainty in the
ground state
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2 km
2
σ 2:
k:
m:
ħ:
positional variance
restoring force
mass of particle
Planck’s constant divided by 2π
Quantum uncertainty in position
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C-C spring constant:
Typical C-C bond length:
σ for C in single C-C bond:
σ for electron (same k):
k~440 N/m
0.154 nm
0.004 nm
0.051 nm
Molecular mechanics
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Nuclei are point masses
Electrons are in the ground state
The energy of the system is fully determined by
the nuclear positions
Directly approximate the energy from the nuclear
positions, and we don’t even have to compute the
electronic structure
Energy
Example: H2
Internuclear distance
Molecular mechanics
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Internuclear distance for bonds
Angle (as in H2O)
Torsion (rotation about a bond, C2H6
Internuclear distance for van der Waals
Spring constants for all of the above
More terms used in many models
Quite accurate in domain of parameterization
Molecular tools
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Today, we make things at the molecular scale by
stirring together molecular parts and cleverly
arranging things so they spontaneously go
somewhere useful.
In the future, we’ll have molecular “hands” that will
let us put molecular parts exactly where we want
them, vastly increasing the range of molecular
structures that we can build.
Synthesis of diamond today:
diamond CVD
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Carbon: methane (ethane, acetylene...)
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Hydrogen: H2
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Add energy, producing CH3, H, etc.
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Growth of a diamond film.
The right chemistry, but little control over the site of
reactions or exactly what is synthesized.
A hydrogen abstraction tool
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/Habs/Habs.html
Some other molecular tools
A synthetic strategy for the synthesis of
diamondoid structures
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Positional assembly
(6 degrees of freedom)
Highly reactive compounds (radicals, carbenes,
etc)
Inert environment (vacuum, noble gas) to
eliminate side reactions
The impact of nanotechnology
depends on what’s being made
Computers, memory, displays
 Space Exploration
 Medicine
 Military
 Environment, Energy, etc.
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Powerful computers
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In the future we’ll pack more computing power into a
sugar cube than the sum total of all the computer
power that exists in the world today
We’ll be able to store more than 1021 bits in the same
volume
Or more than a billion Pentiums operating in parallel
Powerful enough to run Windows 2015
Memory probe
Displays
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Molecular machines smaller than a wavelength of
light will let us build holographic displays that
reconstruct the entire wave front of a light wave
It will be like looking through a window into
another world
Covering walls, ceilings and floor would immerse
us in another reality
Space
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Launch vehicle structural mass will be reduced by
about a factor of 50
Cost per pound for that structural mass will be under
a dollar
Which will reduce the cost to low earth orbit by a
factor 1,000 or more
http://science.nas.nasa.gov/Groups/
Nanotechnology/publications/1997/applicatio
ns/
It costs less to launch less
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Light weight computers and sensors will reduce
total payload mass for the same functionality
Recycling of waste will reduce payload mass,
particularly for long flights and permanent facilities
(space stations, colonies)
Swallowing the surgeon
...it would be interesting in surgery if you could
swallow the surgeon. You put the mechanical
surgeon inside the blood vessel and it goes into
the heart and “looks” around. ... Other small
machines might be permanently incorporated in
the body to assist some inadequately-functioning
organ.
Richard P. Feynman, 1959
Nobel Prize for Physics, 1965
Nanomedicine Volume I
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By Robert Freitas
Surveys medical applications of nanotechnology
Extensive technical analysis
Volume I (of three) published in 1999
http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine
Mitochondrion
Molecular bearing
20 nm scale bar
Ribosome
Molecular computer
(4-bit) + peripherals
“Typical” cell
Mitochondrion
Molecular computer
+ peripherals
Disease and illness are caused
largely by damage at the molecular
and cellular level
Today’s surgical tools are huge and
imprecise in comparison
http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine
In the future, we will have fleets of
surgical tools that are molecular both in
size and precision.
We will also have computers that are
much smaller than a single cell with
which to guide these tools.
Medical applications
 Killing
cancer cells, bacteria
 Removing blockages
 Providing oxygen (artificial red blood
cell)
 Adjusting other metabolites
A revolution in medicine
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Today, loss of cell function results in cellular
deterioration:
function must be preserved
With medical nanodevices, passive structures can be
repaired. Cell function can be restored provided cell
structure can be inferred:
structure must be preserved
Cryonics
Temperature
37º C
37º C
Restore
to health
Freeze
-196º C (77 Kelvins)
Time
(many decades)
Clinical trials
to evaluate cryonics
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Select N subjects
Freeze them
Wait 100 years
See if the medical technology of 2100 can indeed
revive them
But what do we tell those who don’t expect to live
long enough to see the results?
Would you rather join:
The control group?
(no action required)
or
The experimental group?
(see www.alcor.org for info)
Military applications of molecular
manufacturing have even greater potential
than nuclear weapons to radically change the
balance of power.
Admiral David E. Jeremiah, USN (Ret)
Former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
November 9, 1995
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/nano4/jeremiahPaper.htm
Human impact on the
environment depends on
Population
Living
standards
Technology
Restoring the environment with
nanotechnology
 Low
cost greenhouse agriculture
 Low cost solar power
 Pollution free manufacturing
 The ultimate in recycling
Solar power and nanotechnology
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The sunshine reaching the earth has almost
40,000 times more power than total world usage.
Nanotechnology will produce efficient, rugged
solar cells and batteries at low cost.
Power costs will drop dramatically
Environmentally friendly
manufacturing
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Today’s manufacturing plants pollute because they
use imprecise methods.
Nanotechnology is precise — it will produce only
what it has been designed to produce.
An abundant source of carbon is the excess CO2 in
the air
Nanotechnology offers ...
possibilities for health, wealth, and
capabilities beyond most past
imaginings.
K. Eric Drexler
The best way
to predict the future
is to invent it.
Alan Kay