An Electrocatalytic Reaction As a Basis for Chemical Computing in Water Droplets

Zhijie Yang; Qiang Zhuang; Yong Yan; Guillermo Ahumada; Bartosz A Grzybowski

doi:10.1021/jacs.1c06909

An Electrocatalytic Reaction As a Basis for Chemical Computing in Water Droplets

J Am Chem Soc. 2021 Oct 20;143(41):16908-16912. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c06909. Epub 2021 Oct 5.

Authors

Zhijie Yang^{1

2}, Qiang Zhuang^{1

3}, Yong Yan⁴, Guillermo Ahumada¹, Bartosz A Grzybowski^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Soft and Living Matter of Korea's Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Ulsan 49919, South Korea.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, MOE Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
³ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710000, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 49919, South Korea.

PMID: 34609133
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c06909

Abstract

Aqueous droplets covered with amphiphilic Janus Au/Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles and suspended in an organic phase serve as building blocks of droplet-based electronic circuitry. The electrocatalytic activity of these nanoparticles in a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) underlies the droplet's ability to rectify currents with typical rectification ratios of ∼10. In effect, individual droplets act as low-frequency half-wave rectifiers, whereas several appropriately wired droplets enable full-wave rectification. When the HER-supporting droplets are combined with salt-containing "resistor" ones, the resulting ensembles can act as AND or OR gates or as inverters.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't