A commenter on the previous post raised several important issues, and my reply grew into this post. The comment is here, and my reply follows:
@ Eniac — Thanks, you raise several important questions.
Regarding readiness to build extended, self assembling structures, yes, I think that the existing fabrication abilities (that is, the range of molecular structures [...]Diverse components
This post is prompted by a set of interrelated advances in chemistry that hold great promise for advancing the art of atomically precise fabrication. In this post, I’ll describe an emerging class of modular synthesis methods for making a diverse set of small, complex molecular building blocks.
The road to complex self-assembled nanosystems starts with [...]… + 2 H2O, reversibly
I’ve been exploring some recent developments in chemical synthesis and self-assembly that suggest attractive possibilities for engineering robust self-assembling molecular systems. Boronate esters are involved in two ways.
Two days ago, I sat down to write about this, but then I read further into the literature, and learned substantially more. Yesterday, [...]
The center templates the ring
“Unveiling the Transient Template in the Self-Assembly of a Molecular Oxide Nanowheel” HN Miras et al., Science, 327:72–74 (2010).
The cover of Science features atomically precise inorganic nanostructures, polyoxometalates (POMs), that form by means of atomically precise templates. The outer rings of these structures contain 150 molybdenum atoms.
POMs are a diverse class [...]The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday, “Feynman and the Futurists”, about Feynman’s ideas, mine, how the nanotechnology bandwagon got rolling, and how the band got thrown off the wagon — and then, out of the shadows, the NRC report and why the U.S. government should implement the NRC’s recommendations.
The author, Adam Keiper, [...]Part 6 of a series prompted by the recent 50th anniversary of Feynman’s historic talk, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. This is arguably the most important post of the series, or of this blog to date.
Topics:
— The most credible study of molecular manufacturing to date
— The study’s recommendations for Federal research support
— The [...]
Here are a couple of nice nano-images for the New Year. The first depicts a nanoscale metal-oxide donut, whose synthesis is reported in a paper (abstract, subscription required for full article) in this week’s Science Magazine. The paper, whose first author is Haralampos Miras, comes from the group of Lee Cronin at the [...]