2D Sequence‐Coded Oligourethane Barcodes for Plastic Materials Labeling

Mixtures of uniform sequence‐defined oligourethanes are evaluated as 2D molecular barcodes for labeling three different commodity polymers, namely polystyrene, polyvinylchloride and polyethylene terephthalate. Six different oligourethanes are synthesized by solid‐phase iterative synthesis and are coded using a binary monomer alphabet. High‐resolution mass spectrometry studies indicate that all oligomers are uniform and sequence‐defined. However, instead of using them as individual coded chains, oligomers with different chain‐length, mass and sequence are mixed into intentionally polydispersed libraries. In particular, a three‐component library and a four‐component library are created to encode a 2‐bytes model binary sequence. These 2D‐coded libraries are incorporated in all commodity plastics via a simple solvent casting procedure. Furthermore, in all cases, the oligomer mixtures can be extracted from the host polymer films and deciphered by mass spectrometry, thus opening interesting avenues for anti‐counterfeiting and traceability applications. Mixtures of uniform sequence‐defined oligourethanes were evaluated as 2D molecular barcodes for labeling different commodity polymers. Small amounts of these 2D‐coded libraries were blended in polystyrene, polyvinylchloride, and polyethylene terephthalate host films. In all cases, the coded oligomer mixtures were extracted from the films and deciphered by mass spectrometry, thus opening interesting avenues for anti‐counterfeiting and traceability applications.