Bacteriorhodopsin as Security Inks and Their Applications

Thorsten Juchem, Martin Neebe, and Norbert Hampp Institute of Physical Chemistry, Philipps-University, Hans-Meerwein-Str., D-35032 Marburg, Germany e-mail: juchem@mailer.uni-marburg.de URL: http://www.chemie.uni-marburg.de/~hampp

The easily visible photochromic color changes of bacteriorhodopsin may be used as a feature in anti-counterfeiting. Bacteriorhodopsin-based inks have been developed that allow the application on almost all substrates. We have developed bacteriorhodopsin-based document systems where bacteriorhodopsin is not only used as a photochromic security feature but also for data storage. We will present ID-cards where a MB-sized optical storage capacity and photochromic security features, both made from bacteriorhodopsin, are combined. The reliability of such card systems is currently under investigation in field test studies.