Re: SCI:NANO:bootstrapping drextech

Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Mon, 21 Jul 1997 18:56:48 -0400


Carl Feynman wrote:
>
[SNIP of a bunch of chemistry, apparently relating to solution-phase
stuff]
>
> What other reactions might work for subunit linkage? Diels-alder won't work
> because it requires highly unsaturated reactants, which are not permitted by
> the harsh conditions for rearrangement into diamondoid building-blocks.
> Radicals might work, though any easily removed radical group would probably
> also be destroyed in the building-block phase.
>
> --CarlF

My question was, given that (perhaps unsorted, perhaps
not all perfect) "adamantine" building blocks can
be synthesized using "traditional" chemistry, and then
sorted and oriented using an STM, Then how to you hook them
together using the STM. If I understand your reply, you
are discussing "harsh conditions" in solution phase. Does
the STM have to operate in a solution-phase environment?
I had assumed that the building blocks could be deposited
on a suitable work surface for the STM, and the environment
then adjusted as needed (vacuum, noble gas, whatever.)
Then you can employ the STM to sort and orient. At this point
you aren't in solution phase, but you aren't in machine phase
either. You are in "STM phase", or something. Now, is there a
way to hook the blocks together?

As is doubtless painfully obvious, I'm no chemist. My mental
model, using "blocks" and "hook together", may be so grossly
oversimplified as to be worthless. If so, let me know.

Thanks.