Storing data as mixtures of fluorescent dyes

Date:
October 13, 2021
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
As the world's data storage needs grow, new strategies for
preserving information over long periods with reduced energy
consumption are needed.

Now, researchers have developed a data storage approach based on
mixtures of fluorescent dyes, which are deposited onto an epoxy
surface in tiny spots with an inkjet printer. The mixture of
dyes at each spot encodes binary information that is read with a
fluorescent microscope.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
As the world's data storage needs grow, new strategies for preserving information over long periods with reduced energy consumption are
needed. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Sciencehave developed
a data storage approach based on mixtures of fluorescent dyes, which are deposited onto an epoxy surface in tiny spots with an inkjet printer. The mixture of dyes at each spot encodes binary information that is read
with a fluorescent microscope.


========================================================================== Current devices for data storage, such as optical media, magnetic
media and flash memory, typically last less than 20 years, and they
require substantial energy to maintain stored information. Scientists
have explored using different molecules, such as DNA or other polymers,
to store information at high density and without power, for thousands
of years or longer. But these approaches are limited by factors such as
high relative cost and slow read/write speeds.

George Whitesides, Amit Nagarkar and colleagues wanted to develop a
molecular strategy that stores information with high density, fast
read/write speeds and acceptable cost.

The researchers chose seven commercially available fluorescent dye
molecules that emit light at different wavelengths. They used the dyes
as bits for American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ACSII) characters, where each bit is a "0" or "1," depending on whether a
particular dye is absent or present, respectively. A sequence of 0s and
1s was used to encode the first section of a seminal research paper by
Michael Faraday, the famous scientist.

The team used an inkjet printer to place the dye mixtures in tiny
spots on an epoxy surface, where they became covalently bound. Then,
they used a fluorescence microscope to read the emission spectra of
dye molecules at each spot and decode the message. The fluorescent data
could be read 1,000 times without a significant loss in intensity. The researchers also demonstrated the technique's ability to write and read
an image of Faraday. The strategy has a read rate of 469 bits/s, which
is the fastest reported for any molecular information storage method,
the researchers say.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Chemical_Society. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Amit A. Nagarkar, Samuel E. Root, Michael J. Fink, Alexei S. Ten,
Brian
J. Cafferty, Douglas S. Richardson, Milan Mrksich, and George M.

Whitesides. Storing and Reading Information in Mixtures
of Fluorescent Molecules. ACS Cent. Sci., 2021 DOI:
10.1021/acscentsci.1c00728 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211013081555.htm

--- up 5 weeks, 6 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)