Temperature-triggered boron-doped carbon nanoparticles-labeled polyethylene terephthalate with dual emission for double-level fluorescence anti-counterfeiting

The sustainable applications of plastics are extremely challenging in the field of environment. Here, a facile synthesis of temperature-triggered fluorescence platform composed of boron-doped carbon nanoparticles (BCNPs) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was proposed as a convenient way to reuse PET plastic products. Notably, the fluorescence of this platform was tuned by incubation temperature and suitable for double-level anti-counterfeiting by utilizing significant difference of fluorescence emission upon 365 and 254 nm excitations, respectively. With a long-term heating regulation, multi-fluorescence emissions could be obtained as fluorescent codes. The fluorescence was assigned that blue emission originated from PET state and red emission derived from surface state of BCNPs. The red emission was enhanced with the increase of temperature, which was the formation mechanism of varied fluorescence. The multi-color emission performance was also validated using slices cut from PET bottle to demonstrate practicability of the platform. The adjustable fluorescence performance made the platform had good anti-counterfeiting ability, which provided a new way for the reuse of PET.

Automated summary

A facile synthesis of a temperature-triggered fluorescence platform composed of boron-doped carbon nanoparticles (BCNPs) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was proposed as a convenient way to reuse PET plastic products. The fluorescence of this platform was tuned by incubation temperature and suitable for double-level anti-counterfeiting. With long-term heating regulation, multi-fluorescence emissions could be obtained as fluorescent codes. The platform had good anti-counterfeiting ability and provided a new way for the reuse of PET.