Cascading logic gates using ion signals generated by photolabile caged compounds

Abstract

Caged compounds have attracted great attention due to their use in the elucidation of numerous biochemical processes. Photolabile caged compounds release covalently bound moieties upon exposure of ultraviolet light. Releasing the active species in such a controlled manner enables concentration of the molecules to be manipulated in spatiotemporal way. Getting inspired from the knowledge of cellular information transfer through second messenger systems which Ca and Zn ions play important role, we synthesized a photolabile caged Zn(II) compound so that we benefit from its controlled ion release feature, so as to integrate two molecular logic gates physically. For that reason, a molecular logic operation was designed and the released ion was used as information carrier from one logic gate to other. After proving its practicality, we tested same principle for higher molecular logic systems. To do that, photolabile caged Zn(II) compound and previously proved supermolecule with coupled AND logic gates were physically integrated. Results proved that photolabile caged Zn(II) compounds is a useful way to combine two separate logic gates by means of free zinc ions. From this point of view, the approach physical integration of molecular logic gates through a metal ion or compound might be a solution for building more complex molecular logic systems.