title: Electro-molecular Assembly: Electrical Writing of Information into an Erasable Polysaccharide Medium.
abstract: We report that information can be written into an erasable hydrogel medium by precisely imposing controlled electrical signals that trigger supramolecular self-assembly. We prepare the medium from a blend of two stimuli-responsive self-assembling polysaccharides agarose (thermally responsive) and chitosan (pH-responsive). Upon cooling the blend, agarose forms the hydrogel medium while the embedded chitosan chains can be induced to self-assemble in response to imposed pH cues. Importantly, these triggering pH-cues can be imposed electrically (by inserted electrodes) enabling complex messages (e.g., self-assembled multilayers) to be written within the hydrogel medium. The reversibility of these self-assembly mechanisms allow the written information, and the medium itself, to be erased. These physicochemical properties enable this dual responsive medium to encrypt information, while the responsiveness of this structural information and the biocompatibility of the medium suggest uses for accessing/reporting information in diverse life science applications, such as foods, cosmetics, medicine, and the environment.
authors.affiliation: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Sustainable Resource and Energy, Wuhan University , Wuhan, 430079, China.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Sustainable Resource and Energy, Wuhan University , Wuhan, 430079, China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.affiliation: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Sustainable Resource and Energy, Wuhan University , Wuhan, 430079, China.
authors.forename: Si
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Fischell Department of Bioengineering and Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, University of Maryland , College Park, Maryland 20742, United States.
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Bentley
authors.affiliation: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Sustainable Resource and Energy, Wuhan University , Wuhan, 430079, China.
authors.forename: Hongbing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Sustainable Resource and Energy, Wuhan University , Wuhan, 430079, China.
authors.forename: Yumin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Sustainable Resource and Energy, Wuhan University , Wuhan, 430079, China.|Fischell Department of Bioengineering and Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, University of Maryland , College Park, Maryland 20742, United States.
authors.forename: Gregory F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.affiliation: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Sustainable Resource and Energy, Wuhan University , Wuhan, 430079, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Wen
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Shi
keywords: bioelectronics; chitosan; electro-molecular assembly; molecular communication; multilayer