1. Sustainable curcumin-based smart tough fluorescent hydrogels for anti-counterfeiting applications
- Author
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Xiubin Xu, Chuanghong Xiao, Yanting Chen, Danfeng Yu, Yu Lu, Ian Wyman, and Xu Wu
- Subjects
Curcumin ,Fluorescence hydrogels ,Anti-counterfeiting ,Information storage ,Rewritable fluorescence ,Chemical engineering ,TP155-156 ,Biochemistry ,QD415-436 - Abstract
There is currently great interest in developing an environment-friendly, low-cost, and scalable approach for producing stimuli-responsive fluorescent hydrogels (FHs) with excellent mechanical property, rewritable fluorescence, and dual anti-counterfeiting capabilities. Herein, by applying natural, environment-friendly, and sustainable curcumin as a responsive agent, tough pH-responsive FHs (pH-FHs) are fabricated via a facile preparation strategy. These materials have outstanding mechanical performances: ultimate stress of 180 kPa, an ultimate strain of ∼2500%, and good anti-fatigue performances against compression. These pH-FHs are able to sense ammonia and formaldehyde gas, resulting in both a color change and fluorescence for dual anti-counterfeiting functionality. This sensing information is stored individually by the pH-FHs and could be externally removed using formaldehyde gas to achieve a rewritable system. Our study provides valuable insights that are expected to facilitate the development of smart FHs for information encryption and anti-counterfeiting applications.
- Published
- 2023
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