Amphiphilic diblock copolymer‐based multiagent photonic sensing scheme

Abstract

Efficient functionalization of polymer optical fibers' (POF) surface by a novel block copolymer material toward the development of low‐cost multiagent sensors is presented. The employed poly(styrene sulfonate‐b‐tert‐butylstyrene) (SPS‐b‐PtBS) diblock copolymer possesses two blocks of distinctively different polarity and charge, the hydrophilic SPS which is sensitive to polar substances and the hydrophobic PtBS which is sensitive to organic solvents. The coexistence of two different blocks allows for the detection of a wide variety of agents, ranging from ammonia, and organic solvents, to biomolecules like lysozyme, at room temperature as opposed to alternative usually more complicated techniques, all with the sole use of one sensing medium. Copolymers' high glass transition temperature enables the formation of stable and environmentally robust overlayers. The sensing performance of the material is evaluated experimentally on the customizable platform of POFs, demonstrating fast response, high operational reversibility, and also reusability in successively different testing agents. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014, 52, 46–54

Assessment of block and random copolymer overlayers on polymer optical fibers toward protein detection through electrostatic interaction

“…The experimental set-up used for the experiments is similar to our previous relative works. [13][14][15] RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ATR-FTIR analysis and responsivity measurements were performed in order to evaluate the aforementioned copolymers. Both PS-b-P2VP and PS-r-P2VP materials revealed that BSA, which is negatively charged at neutral pH, was adsorbed on positively charged top-layered material surfaces with a fast initial rate and large adsorbed amount, due to the complimentary charge characteristics of the substrate and the positive charge of the sensing materials.…”

“…12 However, in this work we propose and follow an alternative simpler approach regarding the protein detection without using recognition elements, as already mentioned in our previous studies. [13][14][15] The efficiency of this method relies, firstly, on the adsorption of the proteins on specific sensing materials and secondly on the interaction of the enhanced evanescent field (EF) with the sensing materials. The enhancement and optimization of sensitivity in this work relies exclusively on the choice of polymer sensing materials while retaining the low cost multimode POF as the photonic platform.…”

Wireless Condition Monitoring Integrating Smart Computing and Optical Sensor Technologies

“…Selection of proper materials can produce highly customizable POF sensors for a variety of applications in chemical and biochemical detection covering industrial needs of process monitoring in food or pharmaceutical industry. Modern laser micromachining techniques [21] can accurately process POFs surface forming suitable features that can act as hosting cavities for efficient functionalisation [22,23] of POFs' with sensitive materials. Figure 7 shows the development of POF sensor heads with sensitive overlayers and the development of a laser-induced sensing window on a POF.…”

Flat fibre and femtosecond laser technology as a novel photonic integration platform for optofluidic based biosensing devices and lab-on-chip applications: Current results and future perspectives

“…The following structures were created at the edge of the fibre where there is the possibility of filling the structures with active and sensitive materials [11], although here commercially available materials, such as doped PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) or PVK (poly-N-vinyl carbazole) were used. The programming code provides the ability to define the radius of the ring, the distance between the channels/waveguides and the ring resonator and the length of the final resonator structure.…”