Unclonable Plasmonic Security Labels Achieved by Shadow-Mask-Lithography-Assisted Self-Assembly

Yuanhui Zheng; Cheng Jiang; Soon Hock Ng; Yong Lu; Fei Han; Udo Bach; J Justin Gooding

doi:10.1002/adma.201505022

Unclonable Plasmonic Security Labels Achieved by Shadow-Mask-Lithography-Assisted Self-Assembly

Adv Mater. 2016 Mar 23;28(12):2330-6. doi: 10.1002/adma.201505022. Epub 2016 Jan 29.

Authors

Yuanhui Zheng^{1

2}, Cheng Jiang¹, Soon Hock Ng^{3

4}, Yong Lu¹, Fei Han¹, Udo Bach^{3

4}, J Justin Gooding^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Australian Centre for NanoMedicine, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
² ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology, School of Chemistry, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
³ Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia.
⁴ The Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, 151 Wellington Road, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia.

PMID: 26822059
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201505022

Abstract

An unclonable plasmonic anti-counterfeiting strategy is demonstrated, which involves the use of molecule-embedded metal@silica core-shell nanoparticles as information carriers. A shadow-mask-lithography-assisted self-assembly is developed for the fabrication of the plasmonic security labels. The produced security labels show multiple sets of coding information that are highly unique, technically unreplicable, and can be robustly decoded by portable microscopes within seconds.

Keywords: core-shell nanoparticles; dark-field and fluorescence microscopy; security labels; self-assembly; surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Fluorescein / chemistry
Gold / chemistry
Metal Nanoparticles / chemistry*
Metal Nanoparticles / ultrastructure
Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
Particle Size
Photoelectron Spectroscopy
Silicon Dioxide / chemistry
Silver / chemistry
Spectrum Analysis, Raman

Substances

Silver
Gold
Silicon Dioxide
Fluorescein