Transformable and stimuli-responsive liquid metal for integrated, sustainable, and biomimetic DNA-based data storage

Abstract

DNA data storage has emerged as a promising solution to address the challenges of data explosion due to its high storage density and durability. However, traditional storage architectures require substrate replacement and the use of environmentally unfriendly chemicals for multistep operations, hindering seamless and sustainable storage. Here, we report liquid metal (LM)-DNA, an integrated and sustainable DNA storage architecture that leverages a responsive liquid metal as a functionality-adaptive storage medium. LM-DNA allows cascaded storage operations within a single medium, including enzymatic DNA synthesis, hermetic encapsulation through thermal activation, and electrokinetic decapsulation driven by the electrocapillary effect. The green enzymatic DNA data writing and physical data encapsulation/decapsulation avoid toxic chemicals, ensuring a more sustainable route for DNA storage. Furthermore, the fluidity of liquid metal enables biomimetic operations such as file splitting, merging, and reshaping, offering unprecedented flexibility in information management. LM-DNA provides a promising foundation for advancing sustainable and biomimetic information storage technologies.