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Nanomaker's Toolkit — Methods For Self-Assembly
gabrlknght writes with this excerpt from Science News:
"Because nanoparticles are small, a large proportion of their atoms are near the particle's surface. Having fewer neighbors, those relatively unconfined atoms can link in unusual ways, giving materials made of nanoparticles novel properties. But the same characteristic that makes nanostructures useful — size — also makes working with them no small task. Engineering on the nanoscale is like building a ship in a bottle while wearing mittens. It would be far cheaper and easier, researchers agree, if nanoparticles could just arrange themselves into nanomaterials — like dropping the pieces of the ship into the bottle and then sitting back to watch the ship build itself. What scientists are working on now is finding the right chemistry — creating just the right conditions so that natural properties such as charge or magnetism direct the pieces of the ship to come together just so, with the mast above the deck and never below or to the side. This idea, called self-assembly, isn't exactly new. Examples range from the simple separation of oil and vinegar in a bottle of salad dressing to the complex movements of proteins and enzymes — themselves nanosized — reacting in living cells. Scientists have long been inspired by these naturally self-assembling systems. But designing self-assembling systems in the lab, with nanoparticles, presents its own scale of difficulty. And making self-assembled nanomaterials grow large enough to actually be useful is even more challenging."
I wonder if this really is a good thing. Personally I don't like seeing things that I can not see reproducing on their own. I'm pretty sure this technology will work more against us instead of for us at one point. Although that 3d printer that can print its own parts is pretty cool.
self assembly of natural objects is easy, it gets difficult if you want to assemble structures and items not found in nature.
so it might be possible to find the right chemical conditions to pour chemicals into each other to produce a fractal tree structure for filters or batteries, but we will have trouble fabricating the CAD designed battery casing itself.
We could probably one day use the self assembly inherent in crystaline structure to generate superior memory units, but would be much more difficult to get it to layout an x86 schematic.
speaking of self assembly, I have been working on a UI which assembles itself from component pieces in a natural and innovative way
take a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt7qB37sLLo
liqbase
Did some researchers, by chance, try such a random arrangement of nanoparticles a few weeks ago in Mexico?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
"This idea, called self-assembly, isn't exactly new."
Yeah, my parents made us of it to make me and my seven other siblings. My parents parents (all four of them) did the same funny. And their parents and so on back though out the dark ages all the way back before the recorded dawn of reason over the delusions of faith (about 500 BC) and science (hard core about 300 years ago) and still back further till the dawn of life and still back further till the dawn of time itself.
The universe is a computational system as the Alpha Wolf himself proved in A New Kind of Science (http://pathstoknowledge.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/a-new-kind-of-science-by-stephen-wolfram/) and as such this self assembly stuff isn't new.
It might be "new" to us using it consciously but give us a break and don't assume it's new. We are hear because of it! Without self assembly we'd not be here.
Wasn't "gray goo" a hypothetical scenario for self assembly? A matter that were able to convert and absorb anything.
Personally I don't believe in the possibility of a "gray goo".
I do however believe in the green stuff... Just take a walk in the forest and you'll see self assembling nano machinery on a scale capable of covering a whole planet! :-)
This will last only until we have nanoassembler devices, nanoscale robots which will force these components into the shape we want rather than try to engineer them to fall together properly. Still interesting though.
With some of the products on the market now that make use of various Si compounds, and some that claim nano-tech, I would love to see this type of self-arranging -dare I say smart?- nano-tech to form the barrier between my car's paint and the environment. The problem with all sealants and waxes is that they degrade, meaning you (or someone you pay) has to do it at regular intervals. Typically between 1 month and 6 months. I love my car, but hate the polish/seal/wax scenarios :-/
Bonus points if it can be made to enhance depth, and look shiny!
ws
So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?
There are many ways to self-assemble, normally the most usual are either gravity assembly where the particles settle in a suspension or there are chemical methods such using pH to direct assembly as well as using hydrophillic and hydrophobic groups on the surface of nanoparticles to self-assemble.
support my new nanabot overloads currently in control of my higher cognitive function(s)...
It would be far cheaper and easier, researchers agree, if nanoparticles could just arrange themselves into nanomaterials
Yeah!! That's what happens when a few researchers sit around a table: "It would be cool if..."
Haven't you seen the original The Blob movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blob) with Steve McQueen? It's PINKish red goo!!! Ok, in some scenes it's transparent so it might confuse you for being grey...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AASYGG7mrw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP-KzJbKR_o
This sounds similar to the chemical reactions of my body and caffeine. Through some sort of scientific voodoo, I find that a lot of work magically gets done after this mixing of chemicals.
"The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as long as we live." - M.J. A
"But the same characteristic that makes nanostructures useful â" size â" also makes working with them no small task."
somewhat like netbooks??
I found your ship analogy a little too complicated. Can you re-explain what they are trying to do, using a simpler analogy, hopefully one involving a car?
Is this NEWS? No. This drivel about self-assembly can be found in recent literature on the subject. What's next?
How to paint your dead lawn green so you don't have to water it? How to save money by biking to work rather than driving your gas guzzling Little Three U.S. automobiles?
This story is just a place filler because Slashdot has NO news. Slashot's mission is to distract people from realizing that the United States of America has collapsed. Check outside folks. Do you see any newly temporary tags on automobiles? The average U.S. wage has not increased SINCE 1979 while productivity has increased. The difference between productivity and wages is profit and was lent WITH INTEREST to the workers to substitute for increased wages. The problem is that this credit has now imploded and become a mere fraction of what it was.
Wake up and smell your foreclosures.
Yours In Peace,
Kilgore Trout
which one?
. Replicator! .
blog me no blogs
Reminds me of an old joke:
"So, how do you do these ships in bottles?"
"Well, I take some glue, some wooden sticks and some cord and throw it all into a bottle. Then I shake the bottle vigorously until the glue settles. Many funny things come out. Some of them are ships."
j.
Any synthetic chemists want to work with bigger reagents? Here you go. That's all this is.