Cascaded encryption/decryption using digital polymer toward high-level information security

Encoding information in digital polymers has become a promising approach for data storage in recent years. High-level information security is crucial for practical application, which is still challenging in digital polymers due to the lack of efficient techniques. Herein, we proposed a cascaded encryption/decryption approach that uses Morse-coded digital polymers to encipher sequence information as well as molecular weight distribution (MWD) information. The MWD information could be deconvoluted in size exclusion chromatography (1 st decryption), whereas the 2 nd decryption was performed in tandem mass spectrometry. The correct information could only be accessed after two successive decryption processes, thus providing high-level information security. Furthermore, this cascaded strategy was applied to a printing ink formulation for multidimensional anti-counterfeiting applications toward high-value artwork.