Ionoprinting controlled information storage of fluorescent hydrogel for hierarchical and multi-dimensional decryption

• DOI: 10.1007/s40843-018-9372-2
• Publication Date: 2018-11-23T08:23:32Z
• Authors: Xiao-Xia Le; Wei Lu; Jiang He; Michael J. Serpe; Jia-Wei Zhang; Tao Chen
• Keywords: Information storage

Information storage and corresponding encryption/decryption are highly important owing to the prevalence of counterfeit activities and information leakage in the current age. Herein, we propose a novel method to store information via controllable ionoprinting onto fluorescent hydrogel for hierarchical and multi-dimensional decryption. Through incorporating pyrene moieties and carboxylic groups into polymeric hydrogel network, fluorescence changing and controllable shape deformation behaviors could be achieved and integrated by ionoprinting of Fe3+ ions. The diffusion of Fe3+ ions into fluorescent hydrogel can quench the fluorescence of pyrene moieties, and chelate with carboxylic groups to generate anisotropic structures for shape deformation simultaneously. Thus, fluorescence quenching-based 2D information and actuation-based 3D information could be hierarchically decrypted when exposed to UV light and being put into water, respectively. Importantly, the stored information could be erased by replacing Fe3+ with H+, which allows the fluorescent hydrogel as a recyclable information storage material. This work may provide new insights in designing and fabricating novel soft devices for hierarchical and multi-dimensional information encryption, against the rising problems of counterfeiting and confidential information disclosure.