Molecular Nanotechnology www.zyvex.com/nano

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Molecular Nanotechnologywww.zyvex.com/nano

• Ralph C. Merkle
• Principal Fellow, Zyvex
• www.merkle.com

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Nick Smith, ChairmanHouse Subcommittee on Basic
ResearchJune 22, 1999

• In Fiscal Year 1999, the federal government
  will spend approximately 230 million on
  nanotechnology research.

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National Nanotechnology Initiative

• Interagency (AFOSR, ARO, BMDO, DARPA, DOC, DOE,
  NASA, NIH, NIST, NSF, ONR, and NRL)
• Congressional hearings
• Objective double funding through existing
  channels

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Academic and Industry

• Caltechs MSC (1999 Feynman Prize), Rice CNST
  (Smalley), USC Lab for Molecular Robotics, etc
• Private nonprofit (Foresight, IMM)
• Private for profit (IBM, Zyvex, Covalent)
• And many more.

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• 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_0622
  99.htm

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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
anattempt to violate any laws it is something,
in principle, that can be done but in practice,
it has not been done because we are toobig.
Richard Feynman, 1959
http//www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html
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The book that laid out the technical argument for
molecular nanotechnologyNanosystemsby K. Eric
Drexler, Wiley 1992
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Three historical trendsin manufacturing

• More flexible
• More precise
• Less expensive

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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
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It matters how atoms are arranged

• Coal
• Sand
• Dirt, water and air

• Diamonds
• Computer chips
• Grass

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Todays manufacturing methods move atoms in
statistical herds

• Casting
• Grinding
• Welding
• Sintering
• Lithography

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Possible arrangements of atoms
.
What we can make today (not to scale)
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The goal a healthy bite.
.
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Products
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Core molecular manufacturing capabilities
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Today
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Overview of the development of molecular
nanotechnology
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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

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Two morefundamental ideas

• Self replication (for low cost)
• Positional assembly (so molecular parts go where
  we want them to go)

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Von Neumann architecture for a self replicating
system
Universal Computer
Universal Constructor
http//www.zyvex.com/nanotech/vonNeumann.html
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Drexlers architecture for an assembler
Molecular computer
Molecular constructor
Positional device
Tip chemistry
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Illustration of an assembler
http//www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6.h
tml
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• 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
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A C program that prints out an exact copy of
itself

• main()char q34, n10,a"main() char
  q34,n10,acsc 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.htm
l
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English translation

• Print the following statement twice, the second
  time in quotes
• Print the following statement twice, the second
  time in quotes

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Complexity of self replicating systems (bits)
C program 800 Von Neumann's universal
constructor 500,000 Internet worm (Robert Morris,
Jr., 1988) 500,000 Mycoplasma capricolum 1,600,0
00 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
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How cheap?

• 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)

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How long?

• The scientifically correct answer is I
  dont know
• Trends in computer hardware suggest early in the
  next century perhaps in the 2010 to 2020 time
  frame
• Of course, how long it takes depends on what we do

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Developmental pathways

• Scanning probe microscopy
• Self assembly
• Ever smaller systems
• Hybrid approaches

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Moving molecules with an SPM (Gimzewski et al.)
http//www.zurich.ibm.com/News/Molecule/
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Self assembled DNA octahedron(Seeman)
http//seemanlab4.chem.nyu.edu/nano-oct.html
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DNA on an SPM tip(Lee et al.)
http//stm2.nrl.navy.mil/1994scie/1994scie.html
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Buckytubes(Tough, well defined)
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Buckytube glued to SPM tip(Dai et al.)
http//cnst.rice.edu/TIPS_rev.htm
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Building the tools to build the tools

• Directly manufacturing a diamondoid assembler
  using existing techniques appears very difficult
  .
• Well have to build intermediate systems able to
  build better systems able to build diamondoid
  assemblers.

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• If we can make
• whatever we want
• what
• do we want
• to make?

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Diamond Physical Properties

• Property Diamonds value Comments
• Chemical reactivity Extremely low
• Hardness (kg/mm2) 9000 CBN 4500 SiC 4000
• Thermal conductivity (W/cm-K) 20 Ag 4.3 Cu
  4.0
• Tensile strength (pascals) 3.5 x 109
  (natural) 1011 (theoretical)
• Compressive strength (pascals) 1011 (natural) 5 x
  1011 (theoretical)
• Band gap (ev) 5.5 Si 1.1 GaAs 1.4
• Resistivity (W-cm) 1016 (natural)
• Density (gm/cm3) 3.51
• Thermal Expansion Coeff (K-1) 0.8 x 10-6 SiO2
  0.5 x 10-6
• Refractive index 2.41 _at_ 590 nm Glass 1.4 - 1.8
• Coeff. of Friction 0.05 (dry) Teflon 0.05
• Source Crystallume

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Strength of diamond

• 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

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A hydrocarbon bearing
http//www.zyvex.com/nanotech/bearingProof.html
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Neon pump
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A planetary gear
http//www.zyvex.com/nanotech/gearAndCasing.html
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A proposal for a molecular positional device
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Classical uncertainty
s mean positional error k restoring force kb
Boltzmanns constant T temperature
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A numerical example of classical uncertainty
s 0.02 nm (0.2 Å) k 10 N/m kb 1.38 x 10-23
J/K T 300 K
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Molecular tools

• 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, well 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.

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Synthesis of diamond todaydiamond CVD

• Carbon methane (ethane, acetylene...)
• Hydrogen H2
• Add energy, producing CH3, H, etc.
• Growth of a diamond film.

The right chemistry, but little control over the
site of reactions or exactly what is synthesized.
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A hydrogen abstraction tool
http//www.zyvex.com/nanotech/Habs/Habs.html
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Some other molecular tools
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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

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The impact of nanotechnologydepends on whats
being made

• Computers, memory, displays
• Space Exploration
• Medicine
• Military
• Environment, Energy, etc.

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Powerful computers

• In the future well pack more computing power
  into a sugar cube than the sum total of all the
  computer power that exists in the world today
• Well 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

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Memory probe
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Displays

• 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

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Space

• 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/applications/

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It costs less to launch less

• 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)

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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

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Nanomedicine Volume I

• By Robert Freitas
• Surveys medical applications of nanotechnology
• Extensive technical analysis
• Volume I (of three) published in 1999
• http//www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine

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Mitochondrion
Molecular bearing
20 nm scale bar
Ribosome
Molecular computer (4-bit) peripherals
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Typical cell
Mitochondrion
Molecular computer peripherals
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• Disease and illness are caused largely by damage
  at the molecular and cellular level
• Todays surgical tools are huge and imprecise
  in comparison
• http//www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine

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• 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.

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Medical applications

• Killing cancer cells, bacteria
• Removing blockages
• Providing oxygen (artificial red blood cell)
• Adjusting other metabolites

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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. Cell function can be restored
  provided cell structure can be inferred
• structure must be preserved

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Cryonics
37º C
37º C
Restore to health
Freeze
-196º C (77 Kelvins)
Temperature
Time
(many decades)
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Clinical trialsto evaluate cryonics

• 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 dont expect to
  live long enough to see the results?

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Would you rather join

• The control group?
• (no action required)
• or
• The experimental group?
• (see www.alcor.org for info)

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• 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.
html
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Human impact on the environment depends on

• Population
• Living standards
• Technology

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Restoring the environment with nanotechnology

• Low cost greenhouse agriculture
• Low cost solar power
• Pollution free manufacturing
• The ultimate in recycling

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Solar power and nanotechnology

• 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

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Environmentally friendly manufacturing

• Todays 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

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

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• The best way
• to predict the future
• is to invent it.
• Alan Kay