Mussel-inspired fabrication of encoded polymer films for electrochemical identification

Encoded polymer films for electrochemical identification have been achieved by embedding different semiconductor nanocrystals into self-polymerized dopamine films. Such encoded polydopamine films based on mussel-inspired surface chemistry show high adhesive ability and can be created on a wide range of inorganic and organic materials, including noble metals, oxides, ceramics, and synthetic polymers. By incorporating different predetermined levels of various redox nanomarkers, the use of multi-film system composed of multiple, sequenced polydopamine identification films could theoretically generate nearly unlimited (>1012) distinct voltammetric signatures (electric codes).