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A supertough zwitterionic hydrogel with reversible fluorescence for dual-mode food spoilage visualization and
Zhipeng Liang1, Zhouwei Tan1, Xiaowen Xu1
1Key Laboratory of Product Packaging and Logistics, Packaging Engineering Institute, College of Packaging Engineering, Jinan University, Qianshan Road 206, Zhuhai 519070, China.
Abstract:
Food spoilage and counterfeiting pose significant threats, but a single solution addressing both is lacking. This work reports a supertough zwitterionic hydrogel that integrates anticounterfeiting and freshness monitoring. The hydrogel, formed by a poly(acrylamide-co-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-sulfobetaine methacrylate) network crosslinked with alginate-Ca2+, exhibited impressive 2200% elongation and 492.6 kJ/m3 toughness. It also demonstrated excellent fatigue resistance and tear strength with a tearing energy of 1136 J/m2. The zwitterionic chemistry provided strong, repeatable adhesion to various substrates. When doped with curcumin-ZnO carbon dots, the hydrogel showed reversible dual-emission fluorescence, enabling rewritable anticounterfeiting features like pattern printing, ASCII codes, and QR codes. This same mechanism also allowed accurate real-time monitoring of grass carp freshness at 25 °C and 4 °C, with an R2 > 0.986 between Total Volatile Basic Nitrogen (TVB-N) and ΔE. This dual-function hydrogel offers promising potential for next-generation intelligent packaging in food safety and authenticity.