Temporal dependence emerges from a carbodiimide driven acid-anhydride equilibrium coupled to a photocatalytic decarboxylation reaction.

Neurons process multiple stimuli in a temporally dependent manner, which filters noise and enables precise control over complex functions. Synthetically mimicking neuronal processes may be useful for autonomous chemical systems that are able to make their own decisions, yet such time-dependence has not found an equivalent in synthetic reaction networks. Herein, we show that carbodiimide driven equilibria between acid and anhydride can be coupled to photochemical decarboxylation from which temporal input dependence emerges. Under optimized conditions, the decarboxylation of the anhydride is much faster than the acid. However, the anhydride hydrolyses back to the acid, and as such is only temporally present after carbodiimide addition, which limits its conversion to this time period. The network therefore displays temporal dependence, as the product is only generated when both carbodiimide and light inputs align in time. Such systems provide a platform to explore the role of temporal gating in biological regulation and offer new strategies for adaptive catalysis and chemical computing.