Chiroptical Nanocellulose Bio-Labels for Independent Multi-Channel Optical Encryption

Advanced multiplexing optical labels with multiple information channels provide a powerful strategy for large-capacity and high-security information encryption. However, current optical labels face challenges of difficulty to realize independent multi-channel encryption, cumbersome design, and environmental pollution. Herein, multiplexing chiroptical bio-labels integrating with multiple optical elements, including structural color, photoluminescence (PL), circular polarized light activity, humidity-responsible color, and micro/nano physical patterns, are constructed in complex design based on host-guest self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals and bio-gold nanoclusters. The thin nanocellulose labels exhibit tunable circular polarized structural color crossover the entire visible wavelength and circularly polarized PL with the highest-recorded dissymmetry factor up to 1.05 due to the well-ordered chiral organization of templated gold nanoclusters. Most importantly, these elements can independently encode customized anti-counterfeiting information to achieve five independent channels of high-level anti-counterfeiting, which are rarely achieved in traditional materials and design counterparts. Considering the exceptional seamless integration of five independent encryption channels and the recyclable features of labels, the bio-labels have great potential for the next generation anti-counterfeiting materials technology.