Fig. 8: Environmental readouts.
From: Recent advances in coacervate protocells from passive catalysts to chemically programmable systems
a Reaction-driven in situ gelation (self-immobilization): glucose oxidase inside droplets converts glucose to gluconic acid, dissolving CaCO₃ to release Ca²⁺ that crosslinks alginate; the surrounding phase gels and multiple droplets become pinned in a new network. Reproduced with permission94. Copyright 2021, Royal Society of Chemistry. b Materials-level readable output: coacervate prototissues are injectable and cohesive (I), can be written into stable shapes (II) and multi-component patterns (III). Reproduced with permission16. Copyright 2025, Elsevier Inc. c Field-level optical readout: an upstream input module generates a diffusible chemical signal that is transported through a paper channel to a downstream output module (I); the resulting migrating fluorescence band over distance and time (II) reports the range and longevity of the signal. Reproduced with permission86. Copyright 2020, Wiley-VCH GmbH.
