(part of Steps Toward Molecular Manufacturing)
- division into two sub-problems:
Ideally one would like to split the design
of MBBs into two independent problems, namely the analysis of
link-chemistry and the design of MBB-skeleton structures
(which would consist largely of carbon-frameworks). The link-chemistry
would provide the means by which individual MBBs are joined in a
covalent fashion and would be implemented by attaching specific
functional groups at convenient places on the skeletons.
This is of course a design abstraction; in
reality one could not just "attach" a functional group somewhere, but
one will have to specify a detailed scheme by which an organic
molecule could be synthesized so that the desired functional groups
end up in the right places. But for a high-level systems analysis,
this abstract point of view enables better insight into the complexity
and modularity issues.
Hopefully the analysis of these two
independent problems would result in two worked out "toolsets", which
could then be combined flexibly in any desired fashion to give the
actual incarnations of fully functionalized MBBs.
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last updated Oct. 5 1996
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