Toward chemical communication between nanodevices

Although many nanodevices have been described in recent years, nanoparticles capable of communicating with each other have been barely reported. Traditional communication technologies cannot be applied on the nanoscale, but a potential approach to achieve this goal is to mimic how nature communicates by exchanging information using molecules. Based on these concepts, some examples using DNA, enzymes and small molecules for information processing, nanoparticles capable of modulating chemical communication between cells and nanoparticles that can communicate with each another have been reported. Communication between nanodevices may find applications in different areas and a number of future new results are envisioned in this research field. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.