NanoGuy

Dreaming of nanotech

I dreamt of this last night. It is a form of simple nano factory

Take a bunch of magnetic nanowires engineered with atomically sharp tips and place them in an elastomer matrix. Attach oligonucleotides to these tips. Float polymer precursors in a solvent on top of the elastomeric matrix. Capillary action will transfer the mers up onto the oligonucleotides. Using a technique like this to assemble precise sequences of polymer subunits which are then deposited on a substrate that passes over the nanowires/dna tips. If the substrate is a controlled material like synthetic sapphire, silicon, graphene etc. and the nanowire's motion is controlled by very precise magnetic fields from circuit traces or NEMS underlying the elastomer matrix then the deposited polymers will only be able to fall in certain locations on the substrate. As the substrate passes over the many tips phenol rings in the polymer will line up in precisely controllable manners on the substrate.

If the chemistry is managed right, then oxides and other radicals will depart the polymer deposition upon pyrolysis. Using origami-like modeling the resulting graphitic structures will fold up into designed shapes due to energetic changes like folding a flat piece of cardboard into a box.

posted by Guy @ 12:16 PM