On Electropolymerized Fingerprints and their Potential for Identification and Encryption

TL;DR

This paper explores how electropolymerized textures can serve as unique, physical fingerprints for identification and encryption, leveraging stochastic yet characteristic patterns formed through electrochemical processes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electrochemical method to create physical, multi-contrast fingerprints that can be used for secure tagging and encryption.

Findings

Patterns are characteristic of electrochemical conditions and solution content.

Patterns can be used as physical tags to identify solutions within a class.

The method enables low-cost, customizable physical encryption on various substrates.

Abstract

While human technology is ruled by determinism, biological systems exploit a subtle balance of control and stochasticity. This balance, evident in the morphogenesis of textural patterns imprinted on leaves, fur or skin can help hierarchize organisms both as a representative of their species and as unique individuals. In this study, we identified that, by exploiting electrochemistry, it is possible to generate such versatile but specific textures, to imprint patterns of a conducting polymer on a conducting substrate. It is shown that the 1D morphogenesis of conducting polymer dendrites on wires translates, on 2D surfaces, as highly heterogeneous coatings of dark spots, rosettes or marbled patterns. Despite their inherent stochasticity, these patterns are characteristic of the physical conditions they grew in, and particularly of the chemical content of the electroactive solution used for their electropolymerization. A statistical study demonstrates that these patterns could be used as fingerprints to physically tag the identity of a solution within a specific class. By the identification of a new electrochemical process which allows generating physical fingerprints with optical, electrical and chemical contrast on an electrode, this research paves the way toward a disruptive low-cost technology which could allow any end-user to generate personal tags on a glass slide or on a micro-chip, to engrave physically-encrypted personal information for various applications.