Stimuli-responsive luminescent nanomaterial based on lanthanide modified carbon dots for multilevel information encryption

Multistimuli responsive luminescence material have tremendous potential in various advanced photonic applications, especially in high-level information encryption. Here, a facile and effective way was presented to construct multistimuli intelligent luminescent nanomaterial based on europium modified carbon dots (CDs-Eu) for advanced information encryption. This nanocomposite exhibiting controllable response behaviors upon exposure to acid-base, 2,6-dipicolinic acid (DPA) and Cu2+ hold an enormous potential in multilevel encryption application. The fluorescence (FL) color of CDs-Eu can be reversibly switched between colorless and green upon acid-base stimulation. Furthermore, in the presence of the deciphering agent (DPA), the fluorescence color of CDs-Eu exhibited a green to red color change, which can be restored upon another external stimulus (Cu2+). Combined with Morse code and anti-counterfeiting pattern, the encryption, decryption and anti-counterfeiting of important information can be realized. This stimuli-responsive luminescence material with high confidentiality shows great potential in advanced information encryption.