The pH sensitivity of solvated tectomer electronics

TL;DR

This paper investigates the pH-dependent electronic properties of tectomers, oligomer-based structures, proposing their potential use in colloidal liquid robotics for adaptive sensing and data storage applications.

Contribution

It introduces tectomers as a novel pH-sensitive, reconfigurable electronic material suitable for liquid robotics and bio-inspired adaptive systems.

Findings

Tectomers exhibit reversible assembly influenced by pH.

Electronic properties vary with amorphous and crystalline forms.

Potential application in distributed sensing and data management.

Abstract

Colloidal liquid robotics with embodied intelligence solutions mimicking biologic systems, in response to the future increasingly distributed sensing and the resulting data to be managed, has been proposed as the next cybernetic paradigm. Solutions for data storage and readout in liquido require a physical structure able to change configuration under electrical stimuli. We propose tectomers as a candidate for such an adaptive structure. A tectomer is a oligomer made of few oligoglycine units with a common centre. Tectomers undergo pH dependent assembly in a single layer supramers. Tectomers represent a stable paradigm, in their amorphous or crystalline forms, reversibly influenced by solution pH, whose electronic properties are studied herein.