Researchers at Beijing University of Chemical Technology have developed a reconfigurable information storage system using soft hydrogel cubes, inspired by the modularity of LEGO blocks. The system, described in Supramolecular Materials, allows for reversible 3D encoding through supramolecular assembly and orthogonal stimulus responses, enabling over 800 billion distinct data configurations in a 5×5 array.
Led by Professors Feng Shi and Mengjiao Cheng, the team created macroscopic hydrogels that respond to external stimuli such as heat, salt, or light. Each hydrogel unit can independently react to different environmental triggers, and when assembled into a grid, they lock together through reversible chemical interactions. “But unlike fixed QR codes or barcodes, this system can store, erase, rewrite, and reshape information in three dimensions,” said Shi.
The key innovation lies in the interface chemistry between each cube. “By programming how each surface responds to its environment, we create a system where both the flow and transformation of information become controllable,” explained Cheng. This approach allows the platform to support dynamic data storage, masking, and rewriting, making it suitable for applications such as smart labels, biomedical tags, environmental sensors, and secure data encoding.
The system draws inspiration from LEGO blocks in logic rather than size. Each hydrogel unit acts as a modular element that can be swapped or reoriented without damaging the whole. “The reversibility is made possible by reversible supramolecular chemistry, where the forces holding the cubes together are strong enough to stay in place, but weak enough to come apart when needed,” said Shi. This eliminates the need for electronics or batteries, making the system cheap, energy-efficient, and scalable. “We’re building information systems out of matter itself—where materials don’t just carry information, they become it,” added Cheng.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars and other Chinese funding agencies. More details can be found in the original source at Supramolecular Materials.
