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Volume 1 Issue 4, April 2017

A fingerprint is a unique feature whose detection and analysis make the recognition of an individual fail-safe. Similarly, adding chemical fingerprints to goods is a promising approach to make them unclonable. Using optical properties to image, for example, the unpredictable structures that arise from polymer corrugation it is possible to produce tags that are impossible to counterfeit.

See Arppe & Just Sørensen, Nat. Rev. Chem. 1, 0031 (2017).

Image and design: Rachael Tremlett

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Reviews

  • The relative inertness of dinitrogen can be overcome by coordination to suitable organometallics. This Review explores the influence of coordination mode on the likelihood of functionalization and the nature of the products, which take the form of nitrogen-containing complexes and organics, as well as species such as NH3 and N2H4.

    • Richard J. Burford
    • Michael D. Fryzuk
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  • The counterfeiting of goods has economic implications and is a threat to health and security. One promising solution for product authentication is the incorporation of physical unclonable functions. This Review delineates how stochastic chemical processes can afford unique anti-counterfeiting tags that cannot be reproduced.

    • Riikka Arppe
    • Thomas Just Sørensen

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    Review Article
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