Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) Optical Fibers for Environment Sensing and Short-Range Optical Signal Transmission

Abstract

Optical fibers are a key component in modern photonics, where conventionally used polymer materials are derived from fossil-based resources, causing heavy greenhouse emissions and raising sustainability concerns. As a potential alternative, fibers derived from cellulose-based materials offer renewability, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. In the present work, we studied the potential of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to prepare optical fibers with a core-only architecture. Wet-spun CMC hydrogel filaments were cross-linked using aluminum ions to fabricate optical fibers. The transmission spectra of fibers suggest that the light transmission window for cladding-free CMC fibers was in the range of 550–1350 nm, wherein the attenuation coefficient for CMC fibers was measured to be 1.6 dB·cm –1 at 637 nm. CMC optical fibers were successfully applied in touch sensing and respiratory rate monitoring. Finally, as a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate high-speed (150 Mbit/s) short-distance signal transmission using CMC fibers (at 1310 nm) in both air and water media. Our results establish the potential of carboxymethyl cellulose-based biocompatible optical fibers for highly demanding advanced sensor applications, such as in the biomedical domain.

Nanozyme–Cellulose Hydrogel Composites Enabling Cascade Catalysis for the Colorimetric Detection of Glucose

“…Thanks to its ability to coordinate metal cations, CMC-based hydrogels have been employed as smart bioinks for 3D bioprinting applications . Biocompatible optical fibers fabricated from a CMC-based hydrogel cross-linked with Al 3+ ions were recently developed for sensing applications, with the potential for in vivo biological sensing. Among the salient features of CMC, sensing interfaces modified with CMC were observed to inhibit nonspecific protein adsorption, , which is an important problem that negatively affects the performance of biosensors.…”

Integration of carboxymethyl cellulose waveguides for smart textile optical sensors

“…Following an interdisciplinary approach, the research was conducted by combining methods from textile design, material science, and photonics. The optical characterization of the utilized CMC fiber waveguides has been shown in previous work [7] and attenuation coefficients of CMC planar waveguides were measured in this work. Weaving was the chosen method for the waveguides integration into textiles, and different structures were chosen to understand its relation with attenuation values.…”

“…In recent years, cellulose has been studied as a candidate material for preparing optical waveguides [5], [6]. In this work, we utilized car-boxymethyl cellulose (CMC)-based optical waveguides developed by Jaiswal et al [7], and additionally, prepared planar waveguides from CMC. Although still under development, these flexible, biocompatible, biodegradable, renewable, and non-toxic optical waveguides have been proven to be good alternatives to traditional polymer optical fibers (POFs), a commonly utilized material in the field of smart textiles [8].…”

“…Although still under development, these flexible, biocompatible, biodegradable, renewable, and non-toxic optical waveguides have been proven to be good alternatives to traditional polymer optical fibers (POFs), a commonly utilized material in the field of smart textiles [8]. In addition, as an active material, CMC fibers waveguides are sensitive to water, humidity [9], touch, and respiratory rate [7]. Therefore, this work explores cellulose optical waveguides' use in textile constructions, studying their potential to create light-emitting fabrics and soft sensors.…”

A double helix-shaped optical fiber sensor for non-endoscopic diagnosis of gastrin-17

“…Fiber optic sensors, instead use optical fibers to transmit light signals, providing advantages when compared with conventional sensors. [5][6][7][8] Aside from basic physical measurements, fiber optic sensors are now used in healthcare, defense, and nanotechnology. Biosensors, which serve as the experimental reference in this study, are widely used in biomedicine for detecting microRNA, 9,10 methanol, 11,12 and nucleic acids.…”