Sensing on a molecular level

Chemistry at the Interface of Information Technology

The combination of molecular devices capable of processing information regarding their environment and mechanisms to efficiently encode the information is of great potential in many fields of chemistry and beyond. Molecular computers based on networks of interacting molecules that perform logic operations or organized as neurons in a neural network can be envisaged. Molecular computers could overcome the size limitations of currently used microprocessors, which contain integrated circuits made from silicon substrates. Furthermore, molecular computers could directly interact with their environment, thus making them suitable as intelligent sensors and detectors. At a first glance, such a research goal seems to be very futuristic; however, the fusion of knowledge from several research areas could make it feasible.

A remarkably high spacial resolution can be achieved by using multiplexing fluorescent sensors in micellar systems to determine position-dependent proton concentrations which are difficult to determine by other techniques. Such systems coupled with logic elements mimic complex biological systems and can be used as molecular sensing computers. The picture shows a micelle with position-selective sensors, which give information about the chemical environment by their fluorescence.

Such molecular sensors deliver a remarkably high space resolution and are not limited to the measurement of proton concentrations; other compounds can also be detected. Such systems can also be used as models to understand information flow and processing in biological systems as well as to realize intelligent and self-organizing molecular systems.

Oliver Trapp, Wiley, Sept 2008
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121414004/PDFSTART