Nanotechnology manufacturing as extended chemistry Ralph C Merkle

Nanotechnology: manufacturing as extended chemistry Ralph C. Merkle, Ph. D. Principal Fellow 2

Slides on web The overheads (in Power. Point) are available on the web at: http: //www. zyvex. com/nanotech/talks/ppt/ ACS Santa Clara 010524. ppt 3

Foresight Ninth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology November 9 -11, 2001 Santa Clara, California Introductory tutorial November 8 www. foresight. org/Conferences/MNT 9/ 4

Foresight www. nanodot. org www. foresight. org/Sr. Assoc/ Gatherings 5

Health, wealth and atoms 6

Arranging atoms • Diversity • Precision • Cost 7

Richard Feynman, 1959 There’s plenty of room at the bottom 8

Eric Drexler, 1992 9

President Clinton, 2000 The National Nanotechnology Initiative “Imagine the possibilities: materials with ten times the strength of steel and only a small fraction of the weight -- shrinking all the information housed at the Library of Congress into a device the size of a sugar cube -- detecting cancerous tumors when they are only a few cells in size. ” 10

Arrangements of atoms. Today 11

The goal. 12

What to make Diamond physical properties Property Chemical reactivity Hardness (kg/mm 2) Thermal conductivity (W/cm-K) Tensile strength (pascals) Compressive strength (pascals) Band gap (ev) Resistivity (W-cm) Density (gm/cm 3) Thermal Expansion Coeff (K-1) Refractive index Coeff. of Friction Diamond’s value 9000 20 3. 5 x 109 (natural) 1011 (natural) 5. 5 1016 (natural) 3. 51 0. 8 x 10 -6 2. 41 @ 590 nm 0. 05 (dry) Comments Extremely low CBN: 4500 Si. C: 4000 Ag: 4. 3 Cu: 4. 0 1011 (theoretical) 5 x 1011 (theoretical) Si: 1. 1 Ga. As: 1. 4 Si. O 2: 0. 5 x 10 -6 Glass: 1. 4 - 1. 8 Teflon: 0. 05 Source: Crystallume 13

Hydrocarbon bearing 14

Hydrocarbon universal joint 15

Rotary to linear NASA Ames 16

Bucky gears NASA Ames 17

Bearing 18

Planetary gear 19

Neon pump 20

Fine motion controller 21

Positional assembly 22

Thermal noise σ: k: kb: T: mean positional error restoring force Boltzmann’s constant temperature 23

Thermal noise σ: k: kb: T: 0. 02 nm (0. 2 Å) 10 N/m 1. 38 x 10 -23 J/K 300 K 24

Making diamond today Illustration courtesy of P 1 Diamond Inc. 25

Molecular tools A synthetic strategy for the synthesis of diamondoid structures • Positional assembly (6 degrees of freedom) • Highly reactive compounds (radicals, carbenes, etc) • Inert environment (vacuum, noble gas) to eliminate side reactions 26

Hydrogen abstraction tool 27

Other molecular tools 28

C 2 deposition 29

Carbene insertion 30

Experimental work H. J. Lee and W. Ho, SCIENCE 286, p. 1719, NOVEMBER 1999 31

Experimental work I I Manipulation and bond formation by STM Saw-Wai Hla et al. , Physical Review Letters 85, 2777 -2780, September 25 2000 32

Self replication 33

Complexity (bits) • Von Neumann's constructor • Mycoplasma genitalia • Drexler's assembler • Human • NASA 500, 000 1, 160, 140 100, 000 6, 400, 000 over 100, 000, 000 34

Self replication The Von Neumann architecture Universal Computer Universal Constructor http: //www. zyvex. com/nanotech/von. Neumann. html 35

Self replication Replicating bacterium DNA Polymerase 36

Self replication Drexler’s proposal for an assembler http: //www. foresight. org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6. html 37

Broadcast architecture Molecular constructor Macroscopic computer Molecular constructor http: //www. zyvex. com/nanotech/self. Rep. html 38

Replication Manufacturing costs per kilogram will be low • Today: potatoes, lumber, wheat, etc. are all about a dollar per kilogram. • Tomorrow: almost any product will be about a dollar per kilogram or less. (Design costs, licensing costs, etc. not included) 39

Replication An overview of replicating systems for manufacturing • Advanced Automation for Space Missions, edited by Robert Freitas and William Gilbreath NASA Conference Publication 2255, 1982 • A web page with an overview of replication: http: //www. zyvex. com/nanotech/self. Rep. html 40

Impact The impact of a new manufacturing technology depends on what you make 41

Impact Powerful Computers • We’ll have more computing power in the volume of a sugar cube than the sum total of all the computer power that exists in the world today • More than 1021 bits in the same volume • Almost a billion Pentiums in parallel 42

Impact Lighter, stronger, smarter, less expensive • New, inexpensive materials with a strengthto-weight ratio over 50 times that of steel • Critical for aerospace: airplanes, rockets, satellites… • Useful in cars, trucks, ships, . . . 43

Impact Nanomedicine • Disease and ill health are caused largely by damage at the molecular and cellular level • Today’s surgical tools are huge and imprecise in comparison 44

Impact Nanomedicine • In the future, we will have fleets of surgical tools that are molecular both in size and precision. • We will also have computers much smaller than a single cell to guide those tools. 45

Impact Size of a robotic arm ~100 nanometers 8 -bit computer Mitochondrion ~1 -2 by 0. 1 -0. 5 microns 46

Impact Mitochondrion Size of a robotic arm ~100 nanometers “Typical” cell: ~20 microns 47

“Typical” cell Mitochondrion Molecular computer + peripherals 48

Remove bad things 49

Respirocytes http: //www. foresight. org/Nanomedicine/Respirocytes. html 50

Nanomedicine Volume I • • Nanosensors, nanoscale scanning Power (fuel cells, other methods) Communication Navigation (location within the body) Manipulation and locomotion Computation http: //www. foresight. org/Nanomedicine By Robert Freitas, 51

A revolution in medicine • Today, loss of cell function results in cellular deterioration: function must be preserved • With medical nanodevices, passive structures can be repaired: structure must be preserved 52

Temperature Cryonics Liquid nitrogen Time 53

Payoff matrix It works It doesn't Experimental group www. alcor. org A very long and healthy life Die, lose life insurance Control group Die 54

Public perception “Thus, like so much else in medicine, cryonics, once considered on the outer edge, is moving rapidly closer to reality” ABC News World News Tonight, Feb 8 th “…[medical] advances are giving new credibility to cryonics. ” KRON 4 News, Night. Beat, May 3, 2001 55

The environment Human impact on the environment • Population • Living standards • Technology 56

The environment Reducing human impact on the environment • Greenhouse agriculture/hydroponics • Solar power • Pollution free manufacturing 57

Nanotechnology offers. . . possibilities for health, wealth, and capabilities beyond most past imaginings. K. Eric Drexler 58