An optical fiber sensor for Hg2+ detection based on the LSPR of silver and gold nanoparticles embedded in a polymeric matrix as an effective sensing material

In this work, an optical fiber sensor based on the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) phenomenon is presented as a powerful tool for the detection of heavy metals (Hg2+). The resultant sensing film was fabricated using a nanofabrication process, known as layer-by-layer embedding (LbL-E) deposition technique. In this sense, both silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were synthesized using a synthetic chemical protocol as a function of a strict control of three main parameters: polyelectrolyte concentration, loading agent, and reducing agent. The use of metallic nanostructures as sensing materials is of great interest because well-located absorption peaks associated with their LSPR are obtained at 420 nm (AgNPs) and 530 nm (AuNPs). Both plasmonic peaks provide a stable real-time reference that can be extracted from the spectral response of the optical fiber sensor, giving a reliable monitoring of the Hg2+ concentration.