Carbon dots (CDs) rank among the most promising luminescent nanomaterials for anti-counterfeiting application owing to their high fluorescence quantum yield and nontoxicity. Herein, we report a novel, high-level security performance anti-counterfeiting strategy achieved by fluorescence-lifetime-encoded CD fluorescent inks. CD-inks have identical steady-state emission properties, but they have distinctive and well-separated fluorescence lifetimes, allowing authentication of security tags using exclusively fluorescence lifetime imaging. A proof-of-concept anti-counterfeiting tag using CD-based lifetime-encoded inks is demonstrated. The developed CD lifetime-based anti-counterfeit technology is awaited to be applicable to a wide spectrum of security-protecting purposes. Furthermore, the presented method can be easily extended to integrate fluorescence-lifetime-encoded CDs in multichannel bioimaging, high-throughput flow cytometry, and optical data storage.

Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials Department of Physical Chemistry Faculty of Science Palacký University Olomouc Šlechtitelů 27 783 71 Olomouc Czech Republic

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