(MDPI, 2017) Elosúa Aguado, César; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Del Villar, Ignacio; Ruiz Zamarreño, Carlos; Corres Sanz, Jesús María; Bariáin Aisa, Cándido; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Hernáez Sáenz de Zaitigui, Miguel; Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Socorro Leránoz, Abián Bentor; Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Sánchez Zábal, Pedro; Zubiate Orzanco, Pablo; López Torres, Diego; Acha Morrás, Nerea de; Ascorbe Muruzabal, Joaquín; Ozcariz Celaya, Aritz; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica
The measurement of chemical and biomedical parameters can take advantage of the features
exclusively offered by optical fibre: passive nature, electromagnetic immunity and chemical stability
are some of the most relevant ones. The small dimensions of the fibre generally require that the
sensing material be loaded into a supporting matrix whose morphology is adjusted at a nanometric
scale. Thanks to the advances in nanotechnology new deposition methods have been developed: they
allow reagents from different chemical nature to be embedded into films with a thickness always
below a few microns that also show a relevant aspect ratio to ensure a high transduction interface.
This review reveals some of the main techniques that are currently been employed to develop this
kind of sensors, describing in detail both the resulting supporting matrices as well as the sensing
materials used. The main objective is to offer a general view of the state of the art to expose the main
challenges and chances that this technology is facing currently.
