Biomineralization
From apm
Questions to answer
- How little or much of atomic precision is involved in the diverse biomineralization processes found in nature?
- How do the various involved catalytic centers look like?
- How could these centers be abstracted out from the natural environment of proteins and be integrated into artificial structures of higher stiffness. (Spirologomers)?
What is the nature of the involved reaction kinetics?
We want already assembled stuff
- neither to dissolving again
- nor to crystallizing out even more without tool-tip interactions.
Delineation
Current day mainstream bio-mineralization research seems mainly focused on
recreating nice biomineral-protein composite metamaterials (like e.g. nacar seen in sea shells)
but without any focus on atomic precision in biomineral synthesis.
For pushing atomically precise manufacturing capabilities towards more advanced levels
there would need to be focused research in
- isolating catalytic centers
- putting them on tips and
- demonstrating in solution mechanosynthesis with them.
Relation to pathways:
- The "demonstrating mechanosynthesis SPM on tips part" here is related to the direct path.
- The focus on materials that are advanced but still quite a bit before only vacuum synthesizable diamondoid structures is related to the incremental path.
In biomineralization there is probably not yet very much of piezochemical mechanosynthesis involved.
