We report on a new localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-based optical fiber (OF) architecture with a potential in sensor applications. The LSPR-OF system is fabricated by immobilizing gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in a hydrogel droplet polymerized on the fiber end face. This design has several advantages over earlier designs. It dramatically increase the number nanoparticles (NP) available for sensing, it offers precise control over the NP density, and the NPs are positioned in a true 3D aqueous environment. The OF-hydrogel design is also compatible with low-cost manufacturing. The LSPR-OF platform can measure volumetric changes in a stimuli-responsive hydrogel or measure binding to receptors on the NP surface. It can also be used as a two-parameter sensor by utilizing both effects. We present results from proof-of-concept experiments exploring the properties of LSPR and interparticle distances of the GNP-hydrogel OF design by characterizing the distribution of distances between NPs in the hydrogel, the refractive index of the hydrogel and the LSPR attributes of peak position, amplitude and linewidth for hydrogel deswelling controlled with pH solutions.

We demonstrate a new single point, multiparameter, fiber optic sensor concept based on a combination of interferometric and plasmonic sensor modalities on an optical fiber end face. The sensor consists of an extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer in the form of a hemispherical stimuli-responsive hydrogel with immobilized gold nanoparticles (GNPs). The GNPs exhibit local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) that is sensitive towards the local refractive index (RI) of the surrounding environment, while the stimuli-responsive hydrogel is sensitive towards specific chemical compounds. We evaluate the quality of the interferometric and LSPR signals as function of GNP concentration and of hydrogel swelling degree stimulated by ethanol solutions. The GNPs have little influence on the visibility of the Fabry-Perot etalon. The swelling degree of the hydrogel, with corresponding bulk RI changes, have little influence on the local surface RI of the GNPs. We expect this novel sensor concept to be of great value for biosensors for medical applications.

Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are widely used as energy storage systems (ESSs). The biggest challenge they face is retaining intrinsic health under all conditions, and understanding internal thermal behaviour is crucial to this. The key concern is the potentially large temperature differences at high charge/discharge rates. Excess heat created during charge/discharge will accelerate irreversible aging, eventually leading to failure. As a consequence, it is important to keep battery states within their safe operating range, which is determined by voltage, temperature, and current windows. Due to the chemically aggressive and electrically noisy environment, internal temperature measurement is difficult. As a result, non-invasive sensors must be physically stable, electromagnetic interference-resistant, and chemically inert. These characteristics are provided by fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, which are also multiplexable. This review article discusses the thermal problems that arise during LiB use, as well as their significance in terms of LiB durability and protection. FBG-based sensors are described as a technology, with emphasis on their importance for direct temperature measurement within the LiB cell.

We present a first demonstration of a novel multi-parameter fiber optic (FO) sensor concept based on gold nanoparticles (GNP) embedded in a stimuli-responsive hydrogel material. A hemispherical hydrogel immobilized on the optical fiber end-face forms a low-finesse Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometer. The GNPs exhibit local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) that is sensitive towards the refractive index of the surrounding environment, while the stimuli-responsive hydrogel is sensitive towards specific chemical compounds. We evaluate the quality of the interferometric and LSPR signal as a function GNP concentration and of hydrogel swelling degree stimulated by ethanol solutions. The GNPs shows to have little influence on the visibility of the FP etalon, while LSPR of GNP shows to be sensitive towards the surface refractive index rather than bulk refractive index. This demonstration shows that the sensor concept has the potential to be used in applications such as an intravenous two-parametric real-time sensor for medical purpose.

Over the last decade various optical fiber sensing schemes have been proposed based on local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). LSPR are interacting with the evanescent field from light propagating in the fiber core or by interacting with the light at the fiber end face. Sensor designs utilizing the fiber end face is strongly preferred from a manufacturing point of view. However, the different techniques available to immobilize metallic nanostructures on the fiber end face for LSPR sensing is limited to essentially a monolayer, either by photolithographic structuring of metal film, thermal nucleation of metal film, or by random immobilization of nanoparticles (NP). In this paper, we report on a novel LSPR based optical fiber sensor architecture. The sensor is prepared by immobilizing gold NP's in a hydrogel droplet polymerized on the fiber end face. This design has several advantages over earlier designs. It dramatically increase the number of NP's available for sensing, it offers precise control over the NP density, and the NPs are position in a true 3D aqueous environment. The sensor design is also compatible with low cost manufacturing. The sensor design can measure volumetric changes in a stimuli-responsive hydrogel or measure binding to receptors on the NP surface. It can also be used as a two-parameter sensor by utilizing both effects. We present results from proof-of-concept experiments demonstrating a pH sensor based on LSPR sensing in a poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) hydrogel embedding gold nanoparticles.

The distribution of noble metal nanoparticles (NMNPs) in hydrogels influences their nanoplasmonic response and signals used for biosensor purposes. By controlling the particle distribution in NMNP-nanocomposite hydrogels, it is possible to obtain new nanoplasmonic features with new sensing modalities. Particle positions can be characterized by using volume-imaging methods such as the focused ion beam-scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) or the serial block-face scanning electron microscope (SBFSEM) techniques. The pore structures in hydrogels are contained by the water absorbed in the polymer network and may pose challenges for volume-imaging methods based on electron microscope techniques since the sample must be in a vacuum chamber. The structure of the hydrogels can be conserved by choosing appropriate preparation methods, which also depends on the composition of the hydrogel used. In this paper, we have prepared low-weight-percentage hydrogels, with and without gold nanorods (GNRs), for conventional scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging by using critical point drying (CPD) and hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) drying. The pore structures and the GNR positions in the hydrogel were characterized. The evaluation of the sample preparation techniques elucidate new aspects concerning the drying of hydrogels for SEM imaging. The results of identifying GNRs positioned in a hydrogel polymer network contribute to the development of mapping metal particle positions with volume imaging methods such as FIB-SEM or SBFSEM for studying nanoplasmonic properties of NMNP-nanocomposite hydrogels.

We demonstrate a novel single point, multi-parameter, fiber optic sensor concept based on a combination of interferometric and plasmonic sensor modalities on an optical fiber end face. The sensor consists of a micro-Fabry-Perot interferometer in the form of a hemispherical stimuli-responsive hydrogel with immobilized gold nanoparticles. We present results of proof-of-concept experiments demonstrating local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensing of refractive index (RI) in the visible range and interferometric measurements of volumetric changes of the pH stimuli-responsive hydrogel in near infrared range. The response of LSPR to RI ( ∆λr ∆RI ∼ 877nm/RI) and the free spectral range (FSR) to pH ( ∆pH ∆FSR = 0.09624/nm) were measured with LSPR relatively constant for hydrogel swelling degree and FSR relatively constant for RI. We expect this novel sensor concept to be of great value for biosensors for medical applications.

We report on characterization of an optical fiber-based multi-parameter sensor concept combining localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) signal and interferometric sensing using a double-clad optical fiber. The sensor consists of a micro-Fabry-Perot in the form of a hemispherical stimuli-responsive hydrogel with immobilized gold nanorods on the facet of a cleaved double-clad optical fiber. The swelling degree of the hydrogel is measured interferometrically using the single-mode inner core, while the LSPR signal is measured using the multi-mode inner cladding. The quality of the interferometric signal is comparable to previous work on hydrogel micro-Fabry-Perot sensors despite having gold nanorods immobilized in the hydrogel. We characterize the effect of hydrogel swelling and variation of bulk solution refractive index on the LSPR peak wavelength. The results show that pH-induced hydrogel swelling causes only weak redshifts of the longitudinal LSPR mode, while increased bulk refractive index using glycerol and sucrose causes large blueshifts. The redshifts are likely due to reduced plasmon coupling of the side-by-side configuration as the interparticle distance increases with increasing swelling. The blueshifts with increasing bulk refractive index are likely due to alteration of the surface electronic structure of the gold nanorods donated by the anionic polymer network and glycerol or sucrose solutions. The recombination of biotin-streptavidin on gold nanorods in hydrogel showed a 7.6 nm redshift of the longitudinal LSPR. The LSPR response of biotin-streptavidin recombination is due to the change in local refractive index (RI), which is possible to discriminate from the LSPR response due to changes in bulk RI. In spite of the large LSPR shifts due to bulk refractive index, we show, using biotin-functionalized gold nanorods binding to streptavidin, that LSPR signal from gold nanorods embedded in the anionic hydrogel can be used for label-free biosensing. These results demonstrate the utility of immobilizing gold nanorods in a hydrogel on a double-clad optical fiber-end facet to obtain multi-parameter sensing.