Nanocatalyst-Enabled Physically Unclonable Functions as Smart Anticounterfeiting Tags with AI-Aided Smartphone Authentication

Abstract

Counterfeiting is a worldwide issue affecting many industrial sectors, ranging from specialized technologies to retail market, such as fashion brands, pharmaceutical products, and consumer electronics. Counterfeiting is not only a huge economic burden (>$ 1 trillion losses/year), but it also represents a serious risk to human health, for example, due to the exponential increase of fake drugs and food products invading the market. Considering such a global problem, numerous anticounterfeit technologies have been recently proposed, mostly based on tags. The most advanced category, based on encryption and cryptography, is represented by physically unclonable functions (PUFs). A PUF tag is based on a unique physical object generated through chemical methods with virtually endless possible combinations, providing remarkable encoding capability. However, most methods adopted nowadays are based on expensive and complex technologies, relying on instrumental readouts, which make them not effective in real-world applications. To achieve a simple yet cryptography-based anticounterfeit method, herein we exploit a combination of nanotechnology, chemistry, and artificial intelligence (AI). Notably, we developed platinum nanocatalyst-enabled visual tags, exhibiting the properties of PUFs (encoding capability >10300) along with fast (1 min) ON/OFF readout and full reversibility, enabling multiple onsite authentication cycles. The development of an accurate AI-aided algorithm powers the system, allowing for smartphone-based PUF authentications.

A multi-line platinum nanozyme-based lateral flow device for the colorimetric evaluation of total antioxidant capacity in different matrices

“…1b). 26,38 First, 5 nm platinum nanozymes activate H 2 O 2 , leading to the formation of hydroxyl radicals at their surface. Such radical species are responsible for the oxidation of TMB and the color change of the molecule from colorless to blue, providing the colorimetric response of the test.…”

“…26,28,[33][34][35][36] Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that PtNP size and shape can signicantly modulate their catalytic properties, opening the possibility of tailored design and/or maximization of the catalytic activity of the nanoparticles. [37][38][39][40] In this application, we designed a hybrid system combining 5 nm Pt nanozymes with a paper-based device engineered with a multi-line Pt-based Lateral Flow Assay (LFA). Notably, this innovative strategy allows a semi-quantitative evaluation of TAC, providing a direct colorimetric readout within 10 minutes.…”

Graphene-Based Physically Unclonable Functions with Dual Source of Randomness

“…Physically unclonable functions (PUFs) have recently attracted increasing attention for authentication and anticounterfeiting applications because of their unpredictable and unreproducible nature. The underlying concept of PUFs is the use of physical systems with random responses as cryptographic primitives. , Various research efforts − have been made to create PUF-based security tags that are completely immune to forgery and cloning. High encoding capacities have been attained by maximizing the spatial randomness of tag components and using multiplex encoding strategies. − Cost-effective and widely applicable fabrication processes should be further developed to realize the extensive use of such PUF-based security tags in various commercial applications.…”

Communicating Supraparticles to Enable Perceptual, Information‐Providing Matter

“…They are however prone to counterfeiting, difficult to miniaturize while maintaining easily detectable, and cannot offer information on the intactness of their host. [15,16,17] To overcome these limitations, miniaturized ID codes that enable even tiny objects to be distinguished, [15,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] ID codes with physical unclonable functions (PUFs) that aim to erase the concerns of counterfeiting, [32,33,34,35] responsive ID codes, [36][37][38][39][40][41] and wireless identification and sensing platforms (WISPs) [42] were introduced. Responsive ID codes and WISPs augment the ID signal of QR codes and RFIDs with real-time information from their physical environment, respectively.…”