Self assembling smart microscopic reagents could enable pourable electronics
A research project that aims to build autonomous self assembling electronic microreagents that are almost as small as cells has won €3.4million in EU funding.
The MICREAgents (Microscopic Chemically Reactive Electronic Agents) project includes four research groups from the Ruhr University Bochum, along with teams from Europe, Israel and New Zealand. The EU will support the project within its FP7 programme for three years.
The reactive electronic agents will contain electronic circuits called lablets, which have a diameter of less than 100µm and self assemble in pairs.
The lablets – which will integrate transistors, supercapacitors, energy transducers, sensors and actuators – will translate electronic signals into constructive chemical processing, while exchanging chemical and electronic information to jointly direct complex chemical reactions and analyses in the solutions into which they are poured.
Much like cells in the bloodstream, these microreactors could open up the possibility of controlling complex chemistry from the inside out.
