Color-tunable supramolecular luminescent materials for information anticounterfeiting

Counterfeiting-related crimes pose a serious threat to the economic interests, security, and health of governments, businesses, and consumers. The urgent need for advanced anticounterfeiting materials with multilevel security for information encryption and decryption has driven significant research in this area. Supramolecular luminescent materials are potential for anticounterfeiting owing to their dynamic and controllable optical properties. In this review, the strategies adopted for fabricating supramolecular fluorescent materials and their corresponding anticounterfeiting technologies have been discussed. Especially, the time-dependent luminescent materials, which were created by non-equilibrium supramolecular assemblies and exhibited significant changes in fluorescence intensity and wavelength over time, were highlighted for their unique dynamic feature. This feature endowed materials programmable properties on time dimension, allowing for automatic and spontaneous behavior. Consequently, a series of information encryption materials have been developed, including self-erasing fluorescence hydrogels and 4D codes, demonstrating an enhanced level of security.