Due to spontaneous organization of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) into the chiral nematic structure that can selectively reflect circularly polarized light within a visible-light region, fabricating stretching deformation-responsive CNC materials is of great interest but is still a big challenge, despite such a function widely observed from existing creatures, like a chameleon, because of the inherent brittleness. Here, a flexible network structure is introduced in CNCs, exerting a bridge effect for the rigid nanomaterials. The as-prepared films display high flexibility with a fracture strain of up to 39%. Notably, stretching-induced structural color changes visible to the naked eye are realized, for the first time, for CNC materials. In addition, the soft materials show humidity-and compressionresponsive properties in terms of changing apparent structural colors. Colored marks left by ink-free writing can be shown or hidden by controlling the environmental humidities. This biobased photonic film, acting as a new "smart skin", is potentially used with multifunctions of chromogenic sensing, encryption, and anti-counterfeit.

Histamine (HA) is a biogenic amine that can accumulate to high concentration levels in food as a result of microbial activity and can cause toxic effects in consumers. In this work, a portable electrochemical immunosensor capable of detecting HA with high sensitivity and selectivity was developed. Prussian blue-chitosan-gold nanoparticle (PB-CS-AuNP) nanocomposite films with excellent biocompatibility were synthesized and characterized by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The PB-CS-AuNP were coated onto a screen-printed electrode by one-step electrodeposition and used to conjugate the HA ovalbumin conjugate (HA-Ag). HA was determined by a competition between the coating HA-Ag and the HRP labeled HA antibody (HRP-HA-Ab). After careful optimization of assay conditions and Box-Behnken analysis, the developed immunosensor showed a linear range from 0.01 to 100 μg/mL for HA in fish samples. The average recoveries from spiked samples ranged from 97.25% to 105%. The biosensor also showed good specificity, reproducibility, and stability, indicating its potential application in monitoring HA in a simple and low cost manner.

Recent advances in structural-color cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) materials have been made toward chemical sensing applications; however, such materials lack sufficient color chroma for naked-eye observation, and their selective recognition to given chemicals as well as the corresponding mechanism has rarely been reported. Here, a dopamine-infiltration and post-polymerization approach is proposed to construct vivid structural-color composite films. The chiral nematic structure of CNC enables the structural coloration, while the strong light absorption of the polymeric co-phase, polydopamine (PDA) enhances the color chroma and visibility. By controlling the PDA amount, the composite films can detect organic solvents quantitatively and selectively via visible color changes. From the viewpoint of the compatibility and similitude principle, notably, a critical solubility parameter distance (R 0) between PDA and “active” solvents is defined with a three-dimensional Hansen solubility sphere; this well constructs a rule for the sensing selectivity of the chemochromic composite films. The findings pave the foundation for the design of colorimetric sensors with specifically testing objects.

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Exploring high-safety but convenient encryption and decryption technologies to combat threats of information leakage is urgently needed but remains a great challenge. Here, a synergistically time-and temperature-resolved information coding/decoding solution based on functional photonic inks is demonstrated. Encrypted messages can be stored into multiple channels with dynamic-color patterns, and information decryption is only enabled at appointed temperature and time points. Notably, the ink can be easily processed into quick-response codes and multipixel plates. With high transparency and responsive color variations controlled by ink compositions and ambient temperatures, advanced 3D stacking multichannel coding and Morse coding techniques can be applied for multi-information storage, complex anticounterfeiting, and information interference. This study paves an avenue for the design and development of dynamic photonic inks and complex encryption technologies for high-end anticounterfeiting applications. IntroductionNowadays, information security has imposed a tremendous impact on human living, social stability, and even national security, causing urgent requirements of anticounterfeiting materials and advanced encryption/decryption technologies. [1][2][3][4][5][6] To this end, anticounterfeiting materials, including watermarks, [7][8][9]