Photochromic polymer nanoparticles as highly efficient anticounterfeiting nanoinks for development of photo-switchable encoded tags

Abstract

• Synthesis of colloidal nanoparticles with different polarity and particle size, • Preparation of spiropyran-containing photochromic colloidal nanoparticles, • Effect of polarity on the fluorescence emision and photochromism of colloidal nanoparticles, • Development of the photochromic colloidal nanoparticles as anticounterfeiting nanoinks, • Application of the smart nanoinks for encrypting security documents. Dual photochromic and photoluminescent latex nanoparticles were synthesized to develop innovative anticounterfeiting nanoinks with applications in encryption technology. The colloidal nanoparticles bearing hydroxyl groups were resulted from semi-continuous miniemulsion copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and methyl methacrylate. Investigation of the particle size determination and microscopic analysis results demonstrated spherical morphologies for the latex nanoparticles with a mean size of about 80 nm and narrow size distribution. Modification of the polymer nanoparticles with hydroxyl functional groups led to the formation of a high level of hydrogen bonding between the hydroxyl groups and spiropyran chromophore, which is an advantage in the preparation of security anticounterfeiting nanoinks. In addition, optical analysis of the photochromic latex samples showed various UV-vis spectra, fluorescence emission, kinetics of isomerization, and photo-fatigue resistance depending on different amounts of the polar monomers. Further investigations on optical properties exhibited that reducing the size of the colloidal samples can affect their photoluminescence characteristics. This is an efficient way to provide remarkable photoreversible anticounterfeiting inks for different applications, such as printed photo-marking, rewritable handwriting patterns, security encoded tags, and labeling.