What is Diamondoid Mechanosynthesis (DMS)?
Diamondoid mechanosynthesis (DMS) refers to the hypothetical mechanical synthesis of stable chemical structures using covalently bonded carbon, otherwise known as diamond. Mechanical synthesis (mechanosynthesis) contrasts with chemical synthesis is that the synthesis (creation of a new chemical or structure from two smaller precursors) is performed using mechanical forces alone rather than combining the chemicals in a test tube randomly. Mechanosynthesis is a technology in the early research phases. Though mechanosynthesis has been demonstrated several times, proving its physical viability, it has primarily been performed with silicon, not carbon, and only on a very limited scale. The motivation for developing a reliable method of diamondoid mechanosynthesis is that, if it could be massively parallelized, it would be a sound basis for a superior manufacturing technology. Such a manufacturing technology would build macroscale products atom-by-atom, a type of bottom-up assembly, in contr