Cellulose as an Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Material for Optical Anticounterfeiting Applications: An Up-to-Date Appraisal

Abstract

The falsification of documents, currency, pharmaceuticals, branded goods, clothing, food products, and packaging leads to severe consequences. Counterfeited products can not only pose health risks to consumers but also cause substantial economic losses that can negatively impact the global markets. Unfortunately, most anticounterfeiting strategies are easily duplicated due to rapid technological advancements. Therefore, innovative and cost-effective antiforgery techniques that can offer superior multilevel security features are continuously sought after. Due to the ever-growing global awareness of environmental pollution, renewable and eco-friendly native biopolymers are garnering wide attention in anticounterfeiting applications. This review highlights the potential use of cellulose-based eco-friendly materials to combat the counterfeiting of goods. The initial section of the review focuses on the structure, properties, and chemical modifications of cellulose as a sustainable biomaterial. Further, the topical developments reported on cellulose and nanocellulose-based materials used as fluorescent security inks, films, and papers for achieving protection against counterfeiting are presented. The studies suggest the convenient use of celluose and modified cellulose materials for promising optical antiforgery applications. Furthermore, the scope for future research developments is also discussed based on the current critical challenges in the fabrication of cellulose-based materials and their anticounterfeit applications.

Polymeric Materials Obtained by Extrusion and Injection Molding from Lignocellulosic Agroindustrial Biomass

“…Wet oxidation is an interesting alternative applied to the functionalization of cellulose because the process results in products with different structures and properties depending on the substrate, reagents, reaction parameters, and medium. The strategy provides new, high-performance materials based on cellulose, with the possibility of a variety of applications [106]. The oxidation process involves changing the performance of nanofibrils, facilitating their dissolution in water.…”

Multiband MgGeO3-Based Persistent Luminescent Nanophosphors for Dynamic and Multimodal Anticounterfeiting

“…The business of fake products is rapidly expanding in the current market and causes many serious issues that significantly impact society, government, companies, and human health. − Faked drugs, counterfeiting currency, and forged diplomas significantly impact individuals and induce a huge economic loss. − There is a high demand for the development of powerful and high-security anticounterfeiting technologies. Anticounterfeiting labels such as barcodes and QR codes are an effective way of protecting the authenticity of a product through the unique combination of graphical patterns. − Although those labels have many advantages, including low cost, ease of observation, and convenient detection, they still contain a high risk of being imitated since scanning and reprinting these labels is very easy .…”

Fluorescent Materials Based on Spiropyran for Advanced Anti-Counterfeiting and Information Encryption

“…Fake and inferior products, especially currency, medicine, food, and confidential documents, are counterproductive to the development of the global economy [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. What is more serious is that they may also endanger national security and human physical and mental health.…”