Static–Dynamic Fluorescence Patterns Based on Photodynamic Disulfide Reactions for Versatile Information Storage

Dynamic fluorescence patterns with variable output in response to external stimulus can make the current information storage technologies more flexible and intelligent. Yet it remains a great challenge to create such dynamic patterns because of the complicated synthesis process, high cost, limited stability, and biocompatibility of the functional fluorophores. Herein, a facile approach is presented for creating dynamic fluorescence patterns using the photodynamic surface chemistry based on disulfide bonds. By this method, high-resolution ( ≈ 20 µ m) multicolor dynamic fluorescence patterns that are low-cost and dynamically rewritable can be easily fabricated using classical fluorophores such as fluorescein, rhodamine, and dansyl acid. Owing to the spatio-temporal controllability of light, the fluorescence patterns can be partly or entirely erased/rewritten on demand, and complex gray-level fluorescence images with increased information capacity can be easily generated. The obtained fluorescence patterns exhibit little changes after storing in air and solvent environments for 100 days, demonstrating their high stability. In addition, static patterns can also be created on the same disulfide surface using irreversible disulfide–ene chemistry, to selectively control the dynamicity of the generated fluorescence patterns. The authors show the successful application of this strategy on information protection and transformation.