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Making chemistry compute with non-steady-state chemical dynamics

Nature Reviews Chemistry (2026)Cite this article

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Non-steady-state chemical dynamics offer a powerful tool for neuromorphic computing by harnessing nonlinear, collective, and time-evolving behaviours. Coupled with frameworks such as reservoir computing, these systems enable trajectory-based information processing at the molecular scale through concepts from chemical kinetics and far-from-equilibrium dynamics.

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Fig. 1: Conceptual map of the neuromorphic computing related to chemistry.

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Acknowledgements

X.J., Y.C. and X.Y. acknowledge the financial support from Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Disciplines Breakthrough Plan of the Ministry of Education of China (JYB2025XDXM410) and Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 22573072). C.A.N. acknowledges support from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), VI.C.222.037.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Xuan Ji, Yueqi Chen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials for Intelligent Sensing, Key Laboratory of Organic Integrated Circuit, Ministry of Education & Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Xuan Ji, Yueqi Chen & Xi Yu

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin, China

    Xuan Ji, Yueqi Chen & Xi Yu

  3. Hybrid Materials for Opto-Electronics Group, Department of Molecules and Materials, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology and Molecules Centre, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Christian A. Nijhuis

Authors
  1. Xuan Ji
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  2. Yueqi Chen
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  3. Xi Yu
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  4. Christian A. Nijhuis
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Correspondence to Xuan Ji, Xi Yu or Christian A. Nijhuis.

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Ji, X., Chen, Y., Yu, X. et al. Making chemistry compute with non-steady-state chemical dynamics. Nat Rev Chem (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-026-00796-w

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