Abstract
Tunable solid-state fluorescent materials are ideal for applications in security printing technologies. A document possesses a high level of security if its encrypted information can be authenticated without being decoded, while also being resistant to counterfeiting. Herein, we describe a heterorotaxane with tunable solid-state fluorescent emissions enabled through reversible manipulation of its aggregation by supramolecular encapsulation. The dynamic nature of this fluorescent material is based on a complex set of equilibria, whose fluorescence output depends non-linearly on the chemical inputs and the composition of the paper. By applying this system in fluorescent security inks, the information encoded in polychromic images can be protected in such a way that it is close to impossible to reverse engineer, as well as being easy to verify. This system constitutes a unique application of responsive complex equilibria in the form of a cryptographic algorithm that protects valuable information printed using tunable solid-state fluorescent materials.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 6884 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 22 Apr 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors dedicate this manuscript to Professor Yoshihisa Inoue on the occasion of his retirement. We thank Professor Yoshihisa Inoue from Osaka University and Professor Frank Würthner from Universität Würzburg for their useful suggestions. We acknowledge financial support from Northwestern University (NU). X.H. gratefully acknowledges support from the Ryan Fellowship and the Northwestern University International Institute of Nanotechnology.
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