Identification Based On Compositionally Encoded Nanostructures
OwnerJoseph Wang, Guodong Liuinventors
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Abstract
Designs, fabrication and applications of nanostructures made of an alloy of two or more different metal elements to provide a unique identification code based on the composition of the alloy. Such compositionally encoded nanostructures can be in various geometries including but not limited to nanoparticles, nanowires and nanotubes. In one example, a single-step electroplating process may be used to form alloy nanowires without separate electroplating steps.
Claims39
A method for providing a nanostructure identification tag, comprising:
- stimulating an identification tag comprising a plurality of alloy nanostructures to produce a signal, each of the alloy nanostructures being made of an alloy of two or more different metal elements with predetermined relative concentrations;
- measuring the signal from the alloy nanostructures to extract information on the predetermined relative concentrations of the two or more different metal elements in the alloy;
- and
- using a combination of (1) the predetermined relative concentrations of the two or more metal elements in the alloy, and (2) a number of the two or more metal elements as an identification code to identify an object associated with the identification tag.
A method for synthesizing a nanostructure identification tag, comprising:
- performing a single deposition step to deposit two or more different metal elements on a template to grow alloy nanostructure of an alloy of the two or more different metal elements;
- and
- using a plurality of the alloy nanostructures removed from the template to form a nanostructure identification tag for identification based on the relative concentrations of the two or more different metal elements in the alloy.
An article comprising an identification tag which comprises a plurality of alloy nanostructures of an alloy of two or more different metal elements, wherein a combination of (1) a number of the two or more different metal elements and (2) relative concentrations of the two or more different metal elements constitutes a unique identification code for the identification tag.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.