Dynamic Fluorescence Materials Based on Naphthalimide-Functionalized Silica Aerogels and Applications in Advanced Information Encryption

Abstract

With the progress of forgery and decryption, the traditional encryption technology is apparent not enough, which strongly requires the development of advanced multidimensional encryption strategies and technologies. Photo-stimuli responsive fluorescent materials are promising as candidate materials for advanced information encryption. Here, we have reported new photo-stimuli responsive materials by encapsulating photochromic molecules spiropyrans (SPs) into naphthalimide-functionalized silica aerogels. By introducing different modification groups (dimethylamino) into 1,8-naphthalimide, we obtained two kinds of silica aerogels that emit blue and green colors. The naphthalimide-functionalized silica aerogels/dye composite exhibits a blue (dimethylamino-modified naphthalimide-functionalized silica aerogel showing green) emission from naphthalimide of silica aerogels at 450 nm (520 nm) and a red emission around 650 nm of SP. Under exposure to ultraviolet light, SP gradually transformed into the merocyanine (MC) form, and a strong absorption band appeared near 540 nm. At that time, the fluorescence resonance energy-transfer (FRET) process occurred between naphthalimide and the MC isomer. As the irradiation time is extended, the fluorescence color changes continuously from blue (green) to red through the FRET process. Using the time dependence of fluorescence, dynamic encryption patterns and multiple codes were successfully developed based on these functionalized silica aerogels. This work has provided important guidance for designing advanced information encryption materials.

Achieving tunable photoluminescence emission in CaCdGe7O16:Sm3+ persistent luminescence phosphors for optical anti-counterfeiting

“…Phosphors have different PersL and PL colours, which could provide more optical information to greatly improve anti-counterfeiting performance. 17,18 Recently, Huang and co-workers successfully synthesized an Mn-doped colour-tuneable MgGa 2 O 4 :Zn 2+ /Ge 4+ phosphor using an ion-pair substitution (Zn/Ge → Ga/Ga) method. 19 The characterization results for the phosphor showed that the thermoluminescence (TL) colour of the sample gradually changed from green to red, whereas the PersL colour was green.…”