Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles for Multimode Colorimetric Sensing of Multiplex Metal Ions and Molecular Informatization Applications

Plasmonic materials have been widely used in chemo/biosensing and biomedicine. However, little attention has been paid to the application of plasmonic materials in terms of the transition from molecular sensing to molecular informatization. Herein, we demonstrated that silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) prepared through facile and rapid microwave heating have multimode colorimetric sensing capabilities to different metal ions (Cr3+, Hg2+, and Ni2+), which can be further transformed into interesting and powerful molecular information technology (massively parallel molecular logic computing and molecular information protection). The prepared AgNPs can quantitatively and sensitively detect Cr3+ and Hg2+ in actual water samples. The AgNPs’ multimode-guided multianalyte sensing processing was further investigated to construct a series of basic logic gates and advanced cascaded logic circuits by considering the analytes as the inputs and the colorimetric signals (like color, absorbance, wavelength shift) as the outputs. Moreover, the selective responses and molecular logic computing ability of AgNPs were also utilized to develop molecular cryptosteganography for encrypting and hiding some specific information, which proves that the molecular world and the information world are interconnected and use each other. This research not only opens the door for the transition from molecular sensing to molecular informatization but also provides an excellent opportunity for the construction of the “metaverse” of the molecular world.