A Supramolecular Counter Circuit Based on Cyanine Dye Assembly

Abstract

Molecular computation, a rapidly developing multidisciplinary research field, has attracted increasing attention. A series of combinational logic circuits at molecular level have been constructed, however, the development of sequential logic circuits is still in its infancy due to the lack of ideal design tools. Taking advantage of unique assembly behaviors of a cyanine dye, we constructed a two‐bit molecular counter circuit that can implement fundamental sequential logic functions, including number cumulating and descending. Further introducing a guanine‐rich DNA strand as the cycle index, the counter can be reused several times and eventually be scaled‐up to count up to 16 numbers. The supramolecular circuit shows high programmability, flexibility and reversibility, and it is prospected that the strategy would be applied in designing other advanced molecular circuits.