M.Tech.

Energy Sciences
EST-103: Introduction to Nanotechnology

Unit- 1 Introduction to Nanotechnology

(Molecular Nanotechnology)

Prof. Zishan H. Khan

Department of Applied Sciences & Humanities
Jamia Millia Islamia
 What is Molecular Nanotechnology?

Molecular Nanotechnology is defined as "machines at the molecular

scale designed and built atom-by-atom“.

“Molecular nanotechnology is the capability to build or modify any material

object by adding or removing individual atoms under complete external
control”
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

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)
 Possible
arrangements of
.
atoms

What we can make today

(not to scale)
 The goal:
a healthy bite.
.

Zyvex 8
 Products
Products
Core molecular
Products
manufacturing Products
Products
capabilities
Products Products

Products
Products
Products Products
Today Products Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Overview of the Products
development of Products
molecular Products
Products
nanotechnology
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Three Pillars of Molecular Nanotechnology

Atomically precise control of matter

Molecular machines
Programmable matter
 Atomically Precise Control of Matter

http://www.almaden.ibm.com:80
~/vis/stm/atomo.html

[Dekker 1999]
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Pubs/TechRep
orts/NASreports/NAS-00-001/
 Molecular Machines

[Cassell 1999]
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Pubs/TechRep
orts/NASreports/NAS-00-001/
 Programmable Matter

• Numerical Machine Tools

•Fabbers

•DNA, RNA, Polypeptide sequencers

 Molecular Manufacturing

 Manufactured products are made from atoms

 Properties of those products depend on how those atoms are arranged

 Get essentially every atom in the right place.

 Make almost any structure consistent with the laws of physics that we can specify

in molecular detail

 Have manufacturing costs not greatly exceeding the cost of the required raw

materials and energy.

 MOLECULARLY PRECISE FABRICATION

There are two principal techniques for achieving molecularly

precise fabrication of physical structures.

Self assembly (for low cost)

Positional assembly (so molecular parts go where we want them to

go)
 Positional assembly

• Right number in right place

• Any small molecule can be synthesized by having skill

and patience
 Applying positional control
Require tool to have certain properties to make synthesis reliable, feasible,
practicable
• have the proper chemical properties
• be relatively small
• be capable of remaining chemically and mechanically stable
• be bound to a system that can transfer forces and torques to the reactive
portion of the tool
• Be selective between alternative reactions and
• Be easily made
Selective Transport Across a Barrier

• Diamondoid barrier to keep unwanted

contaminants out
• Get desired raw materials
• Eject the spent tool
• Rotor embedded
• High affinity-low affinity
• Result is to increase the concentration of the
desired molecule
• Can achieve extremely high purities
A proposal for a molecular positional
device
Moving molecules with an SPM
(Gimzewski et al.)

http://www.zurich.ibm.com/News/Molecule/
 Molecular Self-assembly
Self-assembly is the spontaneous formation of a complex by small
(molecular) components under simple combination rules
• Geometry, dynamics, combinatorics are all important
• Inorganic: Crystals, supramolecular
• Organic: Proteins, DNA
Goals: Understand self-assembly, design self-assembling systems
• A key problem in nano-technology, molecular robotics, molecular
computation
Self Replication and nanotechnology

• Make products inexpensively

• Inspired by living things
• Artificial self-replicating systems
car – horse
• Inflexible and brittle
• Difficult to design a self replicate in a controlled environment
Self assembly
Complexity of self-replicating systems (bits)

• Von Neumann's universal constructor ~500,000

• Internet worm (Robert Morris, Jr., 1988) ~500,000
• Mycoplasma genitalium 1,160,140
• 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
DNA on an SPM tip
(Lee et al.)

http://stm2.nrl.navy.mil/1994scie/1994scie.html
 A hydrocarbon bearing

http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/bearingProof.html

Zyvex 26
 Neon pump

Zyvex 27
Materials
• Improved strength
• Young’s modulus:
• Steel: 0.2 TeraPascals
• SWCNT: 1.2 TeraPascals

• Smart paint
• Active materials
Source: Deepak Srivastava

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Pubs/TechRep
orts/NASreports/NAS-00-001/
Bearings
Self assembled DNA octahedron
(Seeman)

http://seemanlab4.chem.nyu.edu/nano-oct.html
Buckytubes
(Tough, well defined)
 Applications
• Computers
• Design, simulate
• Control
• Test
• H2 Storage
• Materials
• Strong
• Heat tolerant
• Smart and active
CNT H2 Storage

Source: Deepak Srivastava, MRJ at NASA Ames

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Pubs/TechRep
orts/NASreports/NAS-00-001/
NanoComputer Architecture
• Teramac [Heath 1998]
• Requires unreliable
• Wires
• Devices connecting the wires
• in a 2D grid
• Molecular implementation [Collier 1999]
• Lithographically fabricated metal wires
• Monolayer of redox-active rotaxane switches
• Aiming for memory chip soon

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Pubs/TechRep
orts/NASreports/NAS-00-001/
Cells versus computers

Qualities of cells that are like

those in computers
 Have inputs, state transitions,
and outputs as indicated by
their programming
 Have a language to
communicate between cells
 Have information and energy
storage mechanisms: IDS’s

http://www.rkm.com.au/CELL/
Cells versus computers

Cells Computers
Current carried by: Chemicals Wires

Reactions or Enzymes Transistors

processes turned on
or off by:
Information stored Biopolymers, Capacitors
in: IDS’s

Computational DNA Software

programs stored in:
Cells versus computers

Cells Computers

Programmability No- not yet Yes

Self- Yes No- not yet

Reproducibility
Sequence specific molecular lithography
optical lithography molecular lithography
an atomic relay
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
 Killing cancer cells, bacteria
 Removing blockages