In a study published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, a mixture of chemistry, nanomaterials, and artificial intelligence (AI) was used to produce a measure against simple but cryptographic counterfeiting.
Study: Physically included functions enabled by nanocatalysts as smart anti-counterfeit tags with AI-assisted smartphone authentication. Image credit: Cavan-Images / Shutterstock.com
The need for effective anti-counterfeiting techniques
The requirement for robust anti-counterfeiting solutions is driving academic and corporate research to improve product authenticity and security. The spread of counterfeit commodities is a major nuisance worldwide, especially in the retail and pharmaceutical industries. Counterfeit pharmaceuticals endanger patients and jeopardize public health, leading to high economic and social costs for developed and developing countries.
To put the magnitude of the problem into perspective, counterfeit medicines for the treatment of pneumonia and malaria kill approximately 250,000 children each year. Such a major problem requires a serious technical effort to develop powerful anti-counterfeiting technologies that are also consistent with market limitations.
Numerous chemical substances and procedures have been suggested as biometric markers. These range from complex ink compositions used in banknotes to light conversion nanophosphorus labels, inkjet printable conjugated polymeric platforms, or molecular identifiers such as peptides, DNA, and polymers that promise great potential for encoding and secrecy.
These technologies, however, can be cloned. In addition, they often need expensive hardware and highly skilled workers, restricting their practical uses.
Nanotechnology can improve PUFs
This system provided a very sophisticated anti-counterfeiting technique that uses physically non-clonable functions (PUF) that are based on different markers created by chemical procedures in a stochastic mechanism. The unpredictability created by the non-deterministic technique ensures that replication of the PUF key is almost impossible as long as the PUF sequence is scanned and saved.
If there are not enough different markers to secure a significant number of objects, the encoding capacity of PUFs may be restricted. Due to the unpredictability and enormous parametric space provided by nanostructures combined with physicochemical procedures, this problem can be solved if PUFs are created using nanotechnology-based methods that provide significant coding potential that translates into a large number of markers. different.
Critical aspects of PUFs
Distinctive physical trait is often a two-dimensional or three-dimensional random pattern, leading to multiple visual readings. Certain nanotechnology-based PUFs have recently been described, such as random patterns of glass micropeads, non-clonable quantum dot (QD) fluorescent printed inkjet labels, and random nanoparticle (NP) or Ag nanowire patterns. (NW).
Label reading is crucial because many approaches rely on complex hardware for verification, such as dark, fluorescent, or electron field microscopy, limiting its applicability to general supply chain needs, such as mobility, speed, repeatability and reduced price of the procedure.
Outstanding features of the study
The technique suggested in this study aimed to achieve all the desirable characteristics mentioned above, offering an appropriate approach against counterfeiting by a fast (1 minute), reversible and unquipped colorimetry reading provided by nanoscale Pt catalysts, which is they could be used anywhere on the supply network, even by the end user.
Due to the creation of a reliable AI method for fast and reliable visual marker authentication based on deep learning and computer vision approaches, this nanotechnology-facilitated system can be easily encoded and then authorize using a mobile phone.
Key points
In this study, the team demonstrated the possibility of merging chemistry, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence to build new interdisciplinary techniques designed to address critical sustainability and security challenges.
A sophisticated reversible PUF marker was presented that combined the achievement of different patterns with substantial encryption capabilities with a visual colorimetry reading perceptible to the human eye and analyzable using a mobile phone.
The approach taken by the team provided great ease of authentication (i.e., computer-free visual reading), as well as cutting-edge encryption capabilities by using the catalytic characteristics of nanoparticles. The suggested technique can be improved by creating various stochastic patterns and platforms, resulting in even greater levels of security.
The ability to achieve repeated verification cycles in environmental environments, due to the rapid onset / fade of color (ON / OFF) system evoked by nanoscale platinum catalysts, opens up new avenues for in situ analysis of possible falsifications of high quality products everywhere. the entire supply chain, from post-production quality control to individual end-user evaluation.
Reference
Moglianetti, M., Pedone, D. et al. (2022). Physically includeable nanocatalyst-enabled features such as smart anti-counterfeiting tags with AI-assisted smartphone authentication. Materials and interfaces applied ACS. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.2c02995
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