Researchers manage to store data in plastic – here's how it works

Researchers have developed a method to store data in plastic. The synthetic polymers used could represent an alternative to traditional storage media as they can store information using less space and energy.

Researchers at Seoul National University have developed a method to store data in synthetic polymers – i.e. plastic. To do this, they used binary coding in which two different monomers function as “0” and “1”. This allows direct data access without having to decrypt the entire storage chain.

For demonstration purposes, the researchers encoded their university address in ASCII and stored it as a sequence of 1s and 0s in a polymer. They were then able to read and interpret them without any problem.

Storing data in plastic – using chemical fragments

The system is based on a process called “random access,” which allows targeted access to specific bits of data. The researchers coded the chain so that the specific bits were separated by chemical fragments. When accessed, the system breaks this down into smaller sections.

The team used special software. It makes it possible to extract only certain information from the polymer structure. This works in a similar way to deliberately opening a book page.

Storage of large amounts of data in a small space

The advantages of synthetic polymers over traditional storage media or even DNA appear promising. This is because they require less space, are stable under extreme conditions and can be created in dense storage formats. The technology could be primarily useful for long-term storage of large amounts of data that only need to be accessed infrequently.

This could represent a significant advance in data storage. In the future, synthetic polymers could offer a sustainable and space-saving alternative to conventional storage methods. At the same time, the price per megabyte is falling because polymers are often cheaper to produce than other data carriers.

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