New "Alien Nanofiber" Has Potential Anti-Counterfeiting Applications

A brand-new, tiny fiber dubbed the “alien nanofiber,” co-invented by a North Carolina State University textiles professor and a chemical engineering professor from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, has the potential to become a big deterrent to counterfeiters.

The "alien nanofibers" has the potential to become a big deterrent to counterfeiters.

The novel nanoscale fibers can be placed inside a garment or paper document and serve as a “fingerprint” that proves the garment or document is genuine. At about 150 nanometers in diameter, the fibers are smaller than living cells and invisible to the naked eye. The tiny fibers are designed to have within them even smaller nanoparticles with an electrical, magnetic or optical “signature” that can prove a product genuine. The product would need only be scanned, or read, by a device looking for the particular signature.

For example, according to the researchers, name-brand clothing with nanofibers can be scanned at different points in the supply chain to ensure pirated clothing doesn’t get into retail outlets or into your closet. Passports with nanofibers can be scanned to ensure their legitimacy. Ostensibly, paper money with nanofibers would help ensure fake twenties don’t get into your wallet – or the grocer’s till.

The process used to create the nanofibers is called electrospinning, a textiles manufacturing process first used in the 1930s but now being put to use to create tiny fibers.

In their electrospinning research, the scientists apply electrical charges to water-based polymer solutions containing tiny nanoparticles, including magnetic particles or quantum dots, tiny particles that, depending on their size, display colors. When enough electrical charge is applied to the solution, an unstable jet – or narrow stream of solution and nanoparticles – moving like a whip through air, is formed. The whipping motion elongates the jet while the solvent evaporates, producing a tiny fiber containing the nanoparticles. The researchers then tested the fibers and found the fibers had magnetic properties.

Visit www.ncstate.edu.