The pH sensitivity of solvated tectomer electronics

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

Liquid metal solves maze

A room temperature liquid metal features a melting point around room temperature. We use liquid metal gallium due to its non-toxicity. A physical maze is a connected set of Euclidean domains separated by impassable walls. We demonstrate that a maze filled with sodium hydroxide solution is solved by a gallium droplet when direct current is applied between start and destination loci. During the maze solving the droplet stays compact due to its large surface tension, navigates along lines of the highest electrical current density due its high electrical conductivity, and goes around corners of the maze's corridors due to its high conformability. The droplet maze solver has a long life-time due to the negligible vapour tension of liquid gallium and its corrosion resistance and its operation enables computational schemes based on liquid state devices