Coupled Bistable Chemical Systems - Experimental Realization of Boolean Functions Using a Simple Feedforward Net

Abstract

Abstract We use the BZ-reaction and the MBO-reaction to implement the Boolean functions AND, OR, NAND , and NOR by the coupling of three chemical reactors. The experimental setup is analogous to a simple neural feedforward network with two reactors serving as the input layer and one reactor as the output layer. Coupling between the input and output reactors is carried out through the flow rate (BZ- and MBO-reaction) and through the electrical current by the use of Pt working electrodes (BZ-reaction). The XOR- and XN OR functions may be realized with 5 reactors using combinations of the AND, NOR, NOR - and the AND, NOR, Or-chemical gates, respectively.