Smart logic gates constructed by fluorescent-customizable nanoMOFs for diseases monitoring

Abstract

The molecule computation based on the Boolean logic gates holds great promising in chemical detection, biomarker imaging and disease diagnosis. However, the design of advanced logic gates based on novel nanoplatform of fluorescent-customizable MOFs (metal-organic frameworks) is still in infancy. Herein, whole-visible-spectra fluorescent nanoMOFs are successfully applied to build such a new-generation data processor. Luminescent MOFs (LMOFs) integrated with three functional dyes as DPA, 5-AF and TCPP are synthesized with an in situ one-pot strategy with an ultra-large Stokes shift of 290 nm, in which the dyes undertake multiple roles as modulators, fluorophores, FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer) transmitters as well as signal reporters. LMOFs with expected colors can be customized through our established color database, and a model of LMOFs-based barcodes is established to demonstrate the excellent capability of information storage. Through the control of chemical signals as inputs, the elaborated nanoMOFs platform can well implement basic INHIBIT gate, complicated half-adder and a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) logic circuit. Additionally, such MIMO logic circuit is exemplified to assist in the diagnosis of various diseases by taking different disease-related signal species (1O2, ClO− (LOD = 0.3 μM) and Cu2+ (LOD = 2.3 μM)) as input signals, prefiguring the broad application prospects of the developed fluorescent-customizable nanoMOFs in life sciences.