A facile way to construct sensor array library via supramolecular chemistry for discriminating complex systems

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 4293 - 12
• Main Authors: Tian, Jia-Hong, Hu, Xin-Yue, Hu, Zong-Ying, Tian, Han-Wen, Li, Juan-Juan, Pan, Yu-Chen, Li, Hua-Bin, Guo, Dong-Sheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 25.07.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301/923; 639/638/11; 639/638/541; Arrays; Assembly; Complex systems; Construction; Humanities and Social Sciences; Libraries; multidisciplinary; Pattern analysis; Pattern recognition; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensor arrays; Sensors
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31986-x

Differential sensing, which discriminates analytes via pattern recognition by sensor arrays, plays an important role in our understanding of many chemical and biological systems. However, it remains challenging to develop new methods to build a sensor unit library without incurring a high workload of synthesis. Herein, we propose a supramolecular approach to construct a sensor unit library by taking full advantage of recognition and assembly. Ten sensor arrays are developed by replacing the building block combinations, adjusting the ratio between system components, and changing the environment. Using proteins as model analytes, we examine the discriminative abilities of these supramolecular sensor arrays. Then the practical applicability for discriminating complex analytes is further demonstrated using honey as an example. This sensor array construction strategy is simple, tunable, and capable of developing many sensor units with as few syntheses as possible. The development of sensor unit libraries that require minimal synthetic effort is challenging. Here, the authors report the preparation of sensor array libraries based on a supramolecular approach that relies on the recognition and assembly of macrocyclic amphiphiles.