One-step hydrothermal method synthesized pH-dependent carbon dots for multistage anti-counterfeiting

Xiang Mao; Xia Zhao; Hao Hu; Zequan Li; Wei Xiong; Yujiao Wei; Wei Gao

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2023.123257

One-step hydrothermal method synthesized pH-dependent carbon dots for multistage anti-counterfeiting

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2023 Dec 15:303:123257. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.123257. Epub 2023 Aug 12.

Authors

Xiang Mao¹, Xia Zhao¹, Hao Hu¹, Zequan Li², Wei Xiong³, Yujiao Wei³, Wei Gao⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; Guangxi Engineering and Technology Research Center for High Quality Structural Panels from Biomass Wastes, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-cycle Safety for Composite Structures, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China.
² School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; Guangxi Engineering and Technology Research Center for High Quality Structural Panels from Biomass Wastes, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-cycle Safety for Composite Structures, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety of Ministry of Education, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety of Ministry of Education, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China.
⁴ School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; Guangxi Engineering and Technology Research Center for High Quality Structural Panels from Biomass Wastes, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-cycle Safety for Composite Structures, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China; Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety of Ministry of Education, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China. Electronic address: galaxy@gxu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37591019
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.123257

Abstract

Work to combat counterfeiting has always been crucial to defending the interests of the public. The usual anti-counterfeiting marks are now fundamental and easy to imitate. Therefore, it is more beneficial to anti-counterfeiting work to develop an anti-counterfeiting mark with more variations to make forgery more difficult. Due to its exceptional stability and fluorescence variability, carbon dots (CDs), a newly developed fluorescent material, offer a wide range of potential applications in anti-counterfeiting. However, there currently needs to be more CD applications in multi-level anti-counterfeiting, and additional issues include high cost and environmental contamination. Therefore, considering the problems of green environmental protection and cost, CDs with excellent green (530 nm) and blue (475 nm, 486 nm) luminescence properties were prepared by a one-step reaction of m-phenylenediamine and glucose. The average fluorescence lifespan is longer than 5 ns, and the optimal quantum yield can reach 37%. Due to the large number of protonated amino groups and surface carboxyl functional groups, the prepared carbon dots exhibit green and blue fluorescence emission modes under acidic and alkaline conditions, respectively. Based on this situation, we produced CD ink and successfully used it for multi-level anti-counterfeiting.

Keywords: Carbon dots; Chromic fluorescence; Information storage; Multi-level anti-counterfeiting; pH-dependence.

Publication types

Review