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Performing Logical Operations with Stimuli‐Responsive Building Blocks
Author(s) -
Zhang Xuan,
Soh Siowling
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201606483
Subject(s) - and or invert , nand gate , logic gate , nor logic , self healing hydrogels , materials science , nand logic , nor gate , and gate , xnor gate , computer science , nanotechnology , pass transistor logic , logic family , electronic circuit , logic synthesis , algorithm , electrical engineering , engineering , digital electronics , polymer chemistry
Chemical logic gates can be fabricated by synthesizing molecules that have the ability to detect external stimuli (e.g., temperature or pH) and provide logical outputs. It is, however, challenging to fabricate a system that consists of many logic gates using this method: complex molecules can be difficult to synthesize and these logic gates typically cannot be integrated together. Here, we fabricated different types of logic gates by assembling a combination of different types of stimuli‐responsive hydrogels that change their size under the influence of one type of stimulus. Importantly, the preparation of these stimuli‐responsive hydrogels is widely reported and technically simple. Through designing the geometry of the systems, we fabricated the YES, NOT, OR, AND, NOR, and NAND gates. Although the hydrogels respond to different types of stimuli, their outputs are the same: a change in size of the hydrogel. Hence, we show that the logic gates can be integrated easily (e.g., by connecting an AND gate to an OR gate). In addition, we fabricated a standalone system with the size of a normal drug tablet (i.e., a “smart tablet”) that can analyze (or diagnose) different stimuli and control the release of a chemical (or drug) via the logic gates.