Achieving synchronization with active hybrid materials: Coupling self-oscillating gels and piezoelectric films.

Our goal is to develop materials that compute by using non-linear oscillating chemical reactions to perform spatio-temporal recognition tasks. The material of choice is a polymer gel undergoing the oscillatory Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. The novelty of our approach is in employing hybrid gel-piezoelectric micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) to couple local chemo-mechanical oscillations over long distances by electrical connection. Our modeling revealed that (1) interaction between the MEMS units is sufficiently strong for synchronization; (2) the mode of synchronization depends on the number of units, type of circuit connection (serial of parallel), and polarity of the units; (3) each mode has a distinctive pattern in phase of oscillations and generated voltage. The results indicate feasibility of using the hybrid gel-piezoelectric MEMS for oscillator based unconventional computing.