Decius wrote:
] ] The key ingredient in Subramanian's organic circuits
] ] is "liquid gold." Synthesized in his
] ] laboratory, liquid gold consists of gold nanocrystals
] ] that are only 20 atoms across and melt at 100 degrees
] ] Celsius, 10 times lower than normal.
] ]
] ] The gold nanocrystals are encapsulated in an organic
] ] shell of an alkanethiol (an organic molecule containing
] ] carbon, hydrogen and sulphur) and dissolved in ink. As
] ] the circuit is printed on plastic, paper or cloth using
] ] inkjet technology, the organic encapsulant is burned off,
] ] leaving the gold as a high-quality conductor.
]
] This is an interesting approach. I wonder if it can be
] expanded to other kinds of molecules. Basically, encase the
] molecules you really want inside of a something like a bucky
] ball, but which is easy to manipulate, and easy to destroy.
] Then you build a general purpose acutator for positioning the
] bucky balls. One you've layed out the balls where you want
] them, you either burn them off, or destroy them chemically,
] revealing the molecules you really want, which, being next to
] eachother will bond.... This is the sort of abstration layer
] that nanotech needs.
]
] Thoughts from people with more chemisty knowledge?

Interesting idea Tom.....it would depend on what molecules you were using. Once the vector (in your example, a bucky ball kind of substance) was destroyed, the normal chemical properties of the molecules would be revealed. If two molecules that normally can't interact with each other were coated in some sort of plastic or bucky ball, and they were able to then be moved close together, they would still not form a bond once the vector was destroyed unless their original chemical properties changed somehow so that they could interact. It all comes down to charges and electron shells when it comes to bonding. As well, some molecules are just too bulky to be able to bond well....so getting molecules closer to each other using some sort of medium wouldn't help that. But in cases like this article mentions, it would work...just as long as the molecules can bond, then using a vector to get them in a certain shape before they bond should work.