Time‐Resolved Encryption via a Kinetics‐Tunable Supramolecular Photochromic System

• Published in: Advanced science Vol. 9; no. 6; pp. e2104790 - n/a
• Main Authors: Li, Dong, Feng, Zefen, Han, Yujie, Chen, Chen, Zhang, Qi‐Wei, Tian, Yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.02.2022; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Aqueous solutions; cucurbituril; Data encryption; dynamic encryption; Information storage; Mass spectrometry; Optics; photochromism; Scientific imaging; supramolecular systems; supramolecular systems; cucurbituril; photochromism; dynamic encryption
• ISSN: 2198-3844; 2198-3844
• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202104790

With the advancement of forgery and decryption methods, conventional static encryption technology is becoming more and more powerless, which strongly demands the development of multistate anticounterfeiting materials as well as advanced multidimensional encryption strategies and technologies. Here a new strategy to realize time‐resolved encryption based on a self‐assembled supramolecular ternary complex is presented, which exhibits tunable dynamic photochromic features caused by the reversible photodimerization/cleavage reactions of the guest chromophores inside the cavity of cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]). This supramolecular system shows excellent photochromic properties, including extremely rapid response time, high conversion rate, and product‐stereoselectivity, etc. More importantly, the kinetics of the photoreaction can be modulated by simply varying the host–guest ratios in aqueous or quasi‐solid phase, providing the material with finely tunable time‐dependent features, which cannot only be employed in data processing with more extended information, but also construct confidential materials by time‐resolved multidimensional encryption and dynamic anticounterfeiting. The strategic design of kinetics‐tunable supramolecular photochromic materials may provide valuable guidance for the development of more advanced materials for information security. A smart kinetics‐tunable supramolecular photochromic system based on a macrocycle‐catalyzed and ‐modulated reversible photodimerization reaction is reported. This concise yet powerful supramolecular platform provides a time‐involved dimensionality‐increase approach to comprehensively combine the static and dynamic characteristics of matters, which will greatly improve the capacity of information processing and render the application of multidimensional dynamic encryption with much higher security.