@article{Xu2023, 
author = {Xiubin Xu and Chuanghong Xiao and Yanting Chen and Danfeng Yu and Yu Lu and Ian Wyman and Xu Wu},
title = {Sustainable curcumin-based smart tough fluorescent hydrogels for anti-counterfeiting applications},
year = {2023},
journal = {Green Chemical Engineering},
volume = {4},
number = {4},
pages = {379-386},
keywords = {Curcumin, Fluorescence hydrogels, Anti-counterfeiting, Information storage, Rewritable fluorescence},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1016/j.gce.2022.07.001},
doi = {10.1016/j.gce.2022.07.001},
abstract = {There is currently great interest in developing an environment-friendly, low-cost, and scalable approach for producing stimuli-responsive fluorescent hydrogels (FHs) with excellent mechanical property, rewritable fluorescence, and dual anti-counterfeiting capabilities. Herein, by applying natural, environment-friendly, and sustainable curcumin as a responsive agent, tough pH-responsive FHs (pH-FHs) are fabricated via a facile preparation strategy. These materials have outstanding mechanical performances: ultimate stress of 180 kPa, an ultimate strain of ~2500%, and good anti-fatigue performances against compression. These pH-FHs are able to sense ammonia and formaldehyde gas, resulting in both a color change and fluorescence for dual anti-counterfeiting functionality. This sensing information is stored individually by the pH-FHs and could be externally removed using formaldehyde gas to achieve a rewritable system. Our study provides valuable insights that are expected to facilitate the development of smart FHs for information encryption and anti-counterfeiting applications.}
}