Mechanochemistry

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Mechanochemistry, is the coupling of the mechanical and the chemical on a molecular scale includes mechanical breakage, polymer degradation under shear, cavitation related phenomena (e.g., sonochemistry and sonoluminescence), shockwave chemistry and physics, and even the burgeoning field of molecular machines.

A small part of mechanochemistry is sometimes also called "positional synthesis" or "positional assembly" is a technique for forming chemical bonds by direct computer control of the position of molecules. This is an example of a specific type of Mechanosynthesis.

As of 2004, the typical experimental arrangement is to attach a molecule to the tip of an atomic force microscope, and then use the microscope's precise positioning abilities to push the molecule on the tip into another on a substrate. Since the angles and distances can be precisely controlled, and the reaction occurs in a vacuum, novel chemical compounds and arrangements are possible.

Much of the excitement regarding mechanochemistry regards its potential use in automated assembly of molecular-scale devices. Such techniques appear to have many applications in medicine, aviation, resource extraction, manufacturing and warfare.

Most theoretical explorations of such machines have focused on using Carbon, because of the many strong bonds it can form, the many types of chemistry these bonds permit, and utility of these bonds in medical and mechanical applications. Carbon forms diamond, for example, which if cheaply available, would be an excellent material for many machines.

In practice, getting exactly one molecule to a known place on the microscope's tip is possible, but has proven difficult to automate. Since practical products require at least several hundred million atoms, this technique has not yet proven practical in forming a real product.

The goal of mechanoassembly research at this point focuses on overcoming these problems by calibration, and selection of appropriate synthesis reactions. The first product to be built by these means will probably be a specialized, very small (roughly 1,000 nanometers on a side) machine tool that can build copies of itself using mechanochemical means, under the control of an external computer. In the literature, such a tool is called an assembler.

Once assemblers exist, geometric growth (copies making copies) could reduce the cost of assemblers rapidly. Control by an external computer should then permit large groups of assemblers to construct large, useful projects to atomic precisions.

One such project would combine molecular-level conveyor belts with permanently-mounted assemblers to produce a factory.

[edit] History

Mechanochemistry actually goes back more than 100 years. The coupling of the mechanical and the chemical on a molecular scale includes mechanical breakage, polymer degradation under shear, cavitation related phenomena (e.g., sonochemistry and sonoluminescence), shockwave chemistry and physics, and even the burgeoning field of molecular machines.

The technique of moving single atoms mechanically was proposed by Eric Drexler in his 1986 book The Engines of Creation.

In 1988, researchers at IBM's Zürich Research Institute successfully spelled the letters "IBM" in Xenon atoms on a cryogenic copper surface, grossly validating the approach. Since then, a number of research projects have undertaken to use similar techniques to store computer data in a compact fashion.

More recently the technique has been used to explore novel physical chemistries, sometimes using lasers to excite the tips to particular energy states, or examine the quantum chemistry of particular chemical bonds.

See also molecular nanotechnology, a more general explanation of the possible products, and discussion of other assembly techniques.