Responsible Nanotechnology

Graphene Ribbons Now Available

Precise graphene ribbons can be made by chemically unzipping carbon nanotubes.

This adds one more large molecule to the nanoscale construction toolbox. The ribbons may be useful in electronics, since a film of them should be even more conductive than a film of buckytubes. So they will likely be researched.

The article didn't say so, but I also speculate that these ribbons may be useful as reinforcements in composite materials (like a better kind of carbon fiber), since they seem to be water-soluble (which helps with processing) and might be easier to attach other molecules to than nanotubes are. The researchers estimate that they could be available in ton amounts in a couple of years, if there's demand for them.

In any case, I'm sure they'll be experimented on in many ways. They may turn out to be useful in mechanical nanosystems, though they'd probably be pretty floppy in comparison with buckytubes.

The unzipping process was discovered by Dmitry Kosynkin, a post-doctoral research associate at Rice University, who was studying oxidation of nanotubes. Yes, a lot of nanotechnology is accessible through chemistry.

(Hat tip to Mike Treder.)

Chris Phoenix

Solid-State Quantum Computer

It's not nanotech, except in the sense that anything small and interesting enough counts as nanotech. But it's a significant milestone toward a game-changing technology.

An electronic quantum processor with two qubits, each made of about a billion aluminum atoms, has been created at Yale university. They can get the qubits to maintain their state for about a microsecond. And they have a "quantum bus" that can pass information between the bits.

I don't understand all the cool things you can do with a quantum computer, but apparently it can be useful for simulating quantum chemistry. I suspect we'll have covalent-solid molecular manufacturing before this quantum computer technology develops to the point where it can help, but I've been surprised before by how fast technologies can advance.

Chris Phoenix

Today's Tech: Affordable Carbon Capture

Molecular manufacturing will give us the ability to do planet-scale engineering. We may need it.

Polar ice is melting faster than expected, and permafrost is releasing methane. Science tells us that large-scale reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide may be necessary to avoid major, destructive, near-irreversible climate shifts.

According to a recent CNN news story on carbon capture technology, it may be possible to remove carbon dioxide economically with today's technology. A machine that costs as much as a car could remove the carbon emitted by 20 cars. The power required to remove and liquefy CO2 is 1/5 the power generated by burning coal to produce it.

Of course, removing CO2 is only part of the puzzle. There remains the question of what to do with it. There are several possible answers to that, and it remains to be seen which one is best.

I'm enough of a pessimist to think that this technology will not be adopted until it's too late for it to make much difference. Thus, instead of (for example) a 5% tax on cars to offset their carbon emissions, we'll need a massive crash program. Today's technology will just be a reminder that we don't use technology wisely.

When molecular manufacturing was proposed in the 1980's, there were many applications that could not be achieved by any other technology. As time goes on, some of those applications are being addressed by advances in other fields of technology... at least potentially. Understanding the uses, misuses, and non-uses of today's technologies gives us some clues about how molecular manufacturing may be used and abused.

Chris Phoenix