Excitation-Wavelength- and Time-Dependent Fluorescent Ink Based on RGB Building Blocks for Advanced Anti-Counterfeiting

What is reported here is an advanced anti-counterfeiting ink whose luminous effect changes over time and at different excitation wavelengths. Unlike traditional anti-counterfeit fluorescent materials, the phosphors used here exhibit multicolor emissions under multiple excitation modes. In this work, the most important building blocks are three classic phosphors with primary colors, red (Ca2YNbO6:0.4Eu3+), green (SrAl2O4:0.01Eu2+, 0.02Dy3+) and blue (CaAl2O4:0.012Eu2+, 0.06Nd3+, 0.036Gd3+), which were synthesized using the high-temperature solid-state method. The phosphors formed homogeneous solid solutions and were uniformly distributed throughout the mixture. A homogeneous transparent luminescent ink was obtained by blending the multi-mode phosphors with transparent screen-printing ink, resulting in multi-mode luminescence by simply varying the proportions of the red (R), green (G) and blue (B) phosphors. Thanks to this simple process, an advanced anti-counterfeiting ink with low production costs was achieved. Anti-counterfeiting logos of a “Giraffe” and “Steam Train” were printed using the transparent fluorescent ink onto black cardstock, exhibiting the characteristic of dynamic luminescence dependent on the duration and excitation wavelength. The anti-counterfeiting effect of the patterns suggests that the fluorescent ink is worth developing and is reliable in its application.