Photofluorochromic organic supramolecular compounds for multiple dynamic anticounterfeiting

Abstract

Traditional fluorescent materials are easy to counterfeit because of their static and single signal output. Photofluorochromic materials with highly efficient luminescence and color-changing behavior increase the information encryption level, but it is challenging to regulate their fluorescent quenching rate after photoinduced electron transfer (PET), therefore photofluorochromic materials have been rarely reported. This work proposes that improving the π-conjugation effect of luminescent units and avoiding Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) during photochromic processes are effective strategies to construct photofluorochromic materials. Accordingly, three novel organic supramolecular compounds with different photofluorochromic properties were prepared and their application in information encryption and multiple dynamic anticounterfeiting was evaluated. The findings of this work demonstrate an effective strategy for the design of photofluorochromic molecules with higher security requirements for multiple dynamic anticounterfeiting.