A Near-Infrared Plasmonic Sensor Based on Wedge Fiber-Optic for Ultra-Sensitive Hg2+ Detection

The growing number of serious diseases caused by ever-increasing heavy metal ions pollution have necessitated the use of ion sensors in healthcare and environment monitoring systems. Even with low concentrations heavy metal ions can cause significant harm, so ultra-sensitive on-site and label-free monitoring of heavy metal ions is of great importance. In this work, a simple, portable and high sensitivity optical fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor is demonstrated for the detection of Hg2+. On the basis of the investigation of the effects of different incident angles, the optical fiber sensor adopts wedged tip probe with a 75 degrees incident angle. The plasmonic sensor exhibits a superior refractive index bulk sensitivity of up to 13830 nm/RIU in near-infrared band, which is a further step in ultrasensitive sensing detection, compared with the traditional optical fiber SPR sensors. In addition, we validate the optical fiber sensor's performance for Hg2+ sensing. By self-assembling monolayer of 1,6-Hexanedithiol (HDT) on the sensing surface, the Au-coated fiber-optic probe is modified to capture Hg2+. The lowest detection limit is found to be 0.324 ug/mL for the near-infrared band and the sensitivity can reach up to 0.22 nm/(ug/mL). The experimental results show the excellent promise for our sensor in applications of environmental monitoring due to high sensitivity, selectivity and low-cost.

Automated summary

This work demonstrates a simple, portable and highly sensitive optical fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor for the detection of Hg2+. By investigating the effects of different incident angles, the sensor adopts a wedged tip probe with a 75 degrees incident angle. The plasmonic sensor exhibits superior refractive index bulk sensitivity in the near-infrared band, making it a promising tool for ultra-sensitive and label-free monitoring.