Sequence‐Defined Oligourethane Isomeric Mixtures for Irreversible Encryption
Sequence-defined polymers (SDPs) offer a promising molecular medium for information storage and encryption, yet current strategies for enhancing security typically depend on extending chain length or increasing monomer diversity-approaches that impose substantial synthetic complexity. Here, we introduce a fundamentally different encryption mechanism based on isomeric mixtures of sequence-defined oligourethanes (SDOs). Because isomeric SDOs share identical molecular weights, their mixtures collapse into a single peak in primary MALDI-TOF MS, concealing compositional identity. More critically, tandem MS fragmentation generates multiple degenerate decoding paths, preventing reconstruction of the original mixture and establishing an intrinsically one-way, irreversible molecular encryption process. Using four octameric isomers as a proof-of-concept system, we further integrate these mixtures into CMYK molecular digital inks that enable direct printing and secure information transmission. Encrypted messages can be retrieved only through a bespoke MS/MS decoding algorithm coupled with a predefined ASCII-mapping scheme. This work introduces isomeric oligomer mixtures as a new class of molecular cryptographic media, bridging chemical design with information theory and offering a scalable platform for next-generation data security and anti-counterfeiting technologies.
Authors
- J. F. Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6606-7181)
- Lingxiao Guo
- Keyu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9608-5119)
- J. Y. Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0779-1947)
- Junhua Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8936-3822)
- Chunlai Yang
- Qiangqiang Shi
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2026-02-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.9117281
- Primary Topic
- Supramolecular Chemistry and Complexes
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities