Surface Plasmon Resonance based fiber optic sensor for mercury detection using gold nanoparticles PVA hybrid

Fabrication of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) based fiber optic sensor for mercury detection utilizing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)-PVA hybrid as sensing material is reported. Films of citrate capped AuNPs in PVA matrix are prepared and their optical properties are studied. UV-vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Particle size analysis (DLS) are performed to ascertain the formation of Au-NPs. Aqueous Hg2+ sensing of citrate capped gold nano particles in PVA matrix are investigated. Further SPR based fiber optic sensor has been fabricated using citrate capped AuNPs-PVA hybrid as sensing material. The detection limit of the proposed sensor is found to be 1 x 10(-6) M. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.