Chemical approaches for mimicking logic functions within fluorescent MPT dyes

The progress of the design, synthesis, fluorescence properties and application of a new family of fluorescent molecular switches towards information processing at the molecular level was reviewed. On the basis of the high fluorescence quantum yields and surroundings-sensitive fluorescent properties of the 5-methoxy-2-(2-pyridyl)-thiazole (2-MPT, 1) and a series of its derivatives as prepared, multiple binary logic and arithmetic functionalities were realized through encoding the controllable fluorescence switching properties with binary digit. Combined with the microfluidic platform, the fabrication of the molecular logic devices was attempted.