Development of coding method for traceability identification of cigarette oil pollution based on preparation of...

The appearance of cigarettes produces oil spots with different sizes and shapes affect the sensory quality of cigarettes, which are caused by the oil leakage in the production of cigarettes. In the actual production of cigarettes, the mechanical components of the cigarette production line use oil in a very large number of locations, and the processing section was very long. In the event of oil contamination of cigarettes, it is a challenge to ascertain the precise location of oil leakage in mechanical components.

Herein, we constructed a coding system based on multi-emission fluorescent nano-quantum dots as the markers to identify the cigarette oil contamination. CdSe/ZnS quantum dots with emission peaks at 553 nm, 568 nm, and 595 nm were obtained by CdSe quantum dots with epitaxial growth of the ZnS shell layer based on oleic acid (OA) and oleylamine (OLA) as ligand in the growth process of CdSe nanocrystals, CdSe quantum dots with emission peaks at 636 nm were prepared by combining the ligand action of OA and OLA with the stepwise growth method. The coding system would be allowed to mark 15 different oil-used points with the same oil, encoded by four quantum dots in permutations. Furthermore, the coding system has a detection of as low as 0.136 cm² oil spot area, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the detection signal can attain a value exceeding 3.36.

The successful construction of this coding system provides a reference for multipoint localization tracer technology in industry. This study provides the cigarette industry with a simple detection, prominent signal, and multiple options of marking scheme for oil traceability and identification detection method and technical means to solve the problem of oil contamination of cigarettes due to oil leakage phenomenon at oil-using points.