Rational construction of gel-based supramolecular logic gates by using a functional gelator with multiple-stimuli responsive properties

Abstract

A gelator containing a sorbitol moiety and a naphthalene-based salicylideneaniline group exhibits macroscopic gel–sol behavior in response to four complementary input stimuli: temperature, UV light, OH⁻, and Cu²⁺. On the basis of its multiple-stimuli responsive properties, we constructed a rational gel-based supramolecular logic gate that performed OR and INH types of reversible stimulus responsive gel–sol transition in the presence of various combinations of the four stimuli when the gel state was defined as an output. Moreover, a combination two-output logic gate was obtained, owing to the existence of the naked eye as an additional output. Hence, gelator 1 could construct not only a basic logic gate, but also a two-input-two-output logic gate because of its response to multiple chemical stimuli and multiple output signals, in which one input could erase the effect of another input.