Mechanosynthesis

From Wise Nano

In the hypothesized process of mechanosynthesis, reactive molecules would be attached to molecular mechanical systems, and their encounters would result from mechanical motions bringing them together in planned sequences, positions, and orientations. It is envisioned that mechanosynthesis would avoid unwanted reactions by keeping potential reactants apart, and would strongly favor desired reactions by holding reactants together in optimal orientations for many molecular vibration cycles. Mechanosynthetic systems would be designed to resemble some biological mechanisms.In conventional chemical synthesis or chemosynthesis, reactive molecules encounter one another through random thermal motion in a liquid or vapor.

While the description of mechanosynthesis given above has not yet been achieved, primitve mechanochemistry has been performed at cryogenic temperatures using scanning tunneling scraping electron microscopes). So far, such devices provide the closest approach to fabrication tools for molecular engineering.

Broader exploitation of mechanosynthesis awaits more advanced technology for constructing molecular machine systems - including a molecular assembler or precursors thereof.

It has been suggested, notably by K. Eric Drexler, that mechanosynthesis will be fundamental to molecular manufacturing based on nanofactories capable of building macroscopic objects with atomic precision. The potential for these has been disputed, notably by [Nobel Laurate Richard Smalley, leading to a famous dispute between the two of them .