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Plasmonic sensors have broad application potential in many fields and are promising to replace most bulky sensors in the future. There are various method-based chemical reduction processes for silver nanoparticle production with flexible structural shapes due to their simplicity and rapidity in nanoparticle fabrication. In this study, self-assembled silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) with a plasmon peak at 424 nm were successfully coated onto -NH

Sodium Prussian blue (SPB) with a cubic structure was successfully synthesized by a simple precipitation method in a hot acidic medium. Scanning electron microscopy images showed that the as-prepared SPB consisted of many microcubic structures with different morphologies and sizes because of the tailoring of its surface morphology by etching. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy results indicated the existence of interstitial water and the replacement of Na+ ions by H+ ions in the SPB material. In addition, when used as a sodium-ion battery (SIB) cathode, the as-prepared SPB showed significantly different electrochemical behaviors in two different alkyl carbonate electrolytes (ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate with 2% fluoroethylene carbonate electrolyte (EC-PC-2% FEC) and PC-2% FEC electrolyte). The results showed that in the PC-2% FEC electrolyte, the as-prepared SPB showed excellent rate capability and cycle stability, and hence was found to be a promising SIB cathode material.

Introduction: C-reactive protein (CPR) is known as an inflammation marker related to numerous pathology. Optical biosensor based on the fluorescence dyed is widely used in diagnosis. There are still limitations on the fluorescence signal detection due to the photobleaching effect. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) performed by gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) is testified for the enhancement of photo-signal gathered from the dye molecules. Methods: In this study, Au NPs were used for their significant optical properties and biocompatibility additionally. The seed-mediated synthesis method provided stable NPs with all the essential qualities. A series of modification steps were done on a glass substrate before the bio-bonding for fluorescence-based sensing by a transmission mode (T-mode) detection system which is introduced for the first time in Viet Nam. Results: The synthetic Au NPs in nanosphere structure evinced the absorbance at a maximum wavelength is 521 nm. All the followed alterations showed the accomplishment in forming the in need linking proved through the basic analysis methods. Finally, CRP with the Alexa 488 dye was observed for average at 4.8 folds of enhancement factor compared between the Au NPs coating and non-coating substrate detected by the T-mode system. The low coefficient of variation at under 0.7% appeared for the repeatability and stability of this sensor. Conclusion: The completely modern approach of the T-mode system combined with the LSPR applied in fluorescence sensors enhanced is developed successfully. Also, the future prospect of this designed sensing method is promising by changing the materials' structures and ingredients. Keywords: LSPR, gold nanoparticles, fluorescence enhancement, C-reaction protein, optical biosensors

The potential applications of metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) devices include biosensors for the detection of trace amounts in biosciences, biotechnology, and pathogens that are relevant to medical diagnostics and food control. In the present study, the silver (Ag) film thickness (56 nm) of an MEF system was calibrated to maximize the depth-to-width ratio (Γ) of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) active metal from reflectance dip curves. Upon plasmon coupling with thermally evaporated Ag, we demonstrated a 2.21-fold enhancement compared to the pristine flat substrate with the coefficient of variation (CV) ≈0.22% and the limit of detection (LOD) 0.001 mg L−1 of the concentration of an Alexa Fluor 488-labeled anti-C-reactive protein antibody (CRP@Alexa fluor 488). The structure was developed to simplify the in situ generation of biosensors for the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to determine Rhodamine B (RhB) with a highly robust performance. The procedure presented a simple and rapid sample pretreatment for the determination of RhB with a limit of quantification of 10−10 M and a satisfactory linear response (0.98). The results showed the excellent performance of the surface plasmon coupled emission (SPCE), which opens up possibilities for the accurate detection of small-volume and low-concentration target analytes due to the improved sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

In this work, we present the optical birefringence properties of the optical fiber cladding that exists as an evanescent field where the refractive index (RI) of the analysis solution is applied for optical sensor aspiration. To enhance the performance of the sensor, we have investigated the sensor with different thicknesses of TiO2 coating and bimetallic (Ag-Al) film alloy combinations by thermal evaporation coating. We described a special balanced homodyne detection method for the intensity difference change between the p- and s-polarization lights in the surface plasmon resonance sensing systems, which is strongly determined by the RI of the test medium. The plasmonic optical fiber can measure a very small change of the RI of a glycerol solution, which is a resolution of 4.37 × 10-8 RI unit (RIU). This method has great advantages of a small-sized optical setup, high stability, high selectivity, easy chemical modification, and low cost. Furthermore, because of the experiment results, we observe that our approach can also eliminate the surrounding noise in the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, which shows the feasibility of this proposed technique. We demonstrate the fluorescence enhancement in detecting the C-reactive protein antibody conjugated with fluorescein isothiocyanate by means of near-field coupling between surface plasmons and fluorophores at spectral channels of emission. This technique can also be extended for application in a biomedical assay and in biochemical science, including molecular diagnostics relying on multichannels that require a small volume of the analyte at each channel which would suffer from the weakness of fluorescence if it were not for the enhancement technology.

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The development of improved methods for the synthesis of monodisperse gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) is of high priority because they can be used as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) applications relating to biological lipids. Herein, Au NPs have been successfully synthesized via a seed-mediated growth method. The LSPR peak is controlled via adjusting the gold nanoseed component, and different fabrication methods were studied to establish the effect of sonication time on NP size. The simple, facile, and room-temperature method is based on a conventional ultrasonic bath, which leads to ultrasonic energy effects on the size and morphology of the Au NPs. This research offers new opportunities for the production of highly monodispersed spherical Au NPs without the use of a magnetic stirrer method, as evidenced by ultraviolet-visible reflectance spectra and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. SEM images indicate that the spherical Au NP colloidal particles are stable and reliable, which paves the way for their use as a nanostructured biosensor platform that can be exploited for multiple applications, for example, in materials science, sensing, catalysis, medicine, food safety, biomedicine, etc. The highest enhancement factor that could be achieved in terms of the SERS enhancement activity of these Au NP arrays was determined using 10−9 M serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) as the Raman probe molecules.

The use of dye in food is harmful to human health and is prohibited nowadays. However, it is still used because of the benefits, such as cheap prices and abundant resources. Rhodamine B is usually used as the colorant in food such as chili powder, chili oil, etc. It is colorless at very low concentration 10-7 M. The sensitive detection of RhB at ultra-low concentration help to prevent some risk for human. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a great technique to detect the analytes at ultra-low concentration and provide the molecule’s information as a fingerprint. In this study, silver nano-cube was facilely synthesized by reducing Ag+ in ethylene glycol and upgraded to thin-film as a SERS active substrate. RhB was detected at 10-10 M by a silver nano-cube sensor. The dynamic linear regression between the Raman intensity and RhB concentration over seven orders of magnitude (from 10-4 to 10-10 M) was excellent with high reliability (R2 = 0.99). Moreover, the substrate can be used after storing in a dark area for 60 days. This proposed nano-cube silver could serve as a potential substrate for detecting RhB in food at very low concentration.

We investigated the coupling phenomenon between plasmonic resonance and waveguide modes through theoretical and experimental parametric analyses on the bimetallic waveguide-coupled long-range surface plasmon resonance (Bi-WCLRSPR) structure. The calculation results indicated that the multi-plasmonic coupling gives rise to the enhanced depth-to-width ratio of the reflection dip compared to that of LRSPR excited using a single set of Ag and Teflon. The optimized thickness of Ag(40 nm)/Teflon(700 nm)/Ag(5 nm)/Au(5 nm) was obtained and generated the highest plasmon intensity enhancement, which was 2.38 folds in comparison to the conventional bimetallic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) configuration (Ag/Au). 17β-Estradiol was used in the fluorescence enhancement experiment by the reflection geometry-based system, wherein the excitation light source was on the side of a WC-LRSPR chip opposite to that of the light detection unit. The phenomenon of surface plasmon-couple emission (SPCE) depends on the number of 17β-estradiol molecule promoters from female sex steroid hormones, which demonstrated a limit of detection (LOD) of 2 pg mL−1 and 1.47-fold fluorescence improvement as compared to the non-coated material on the surface of pristine glass. This enhanced WC-LRSPR can readily find application in fluorescence escalation needed in cases where a weak fluorescence signal is predicted, such as the small volume of liquid containing fluorescent dyes in biological diagnosis.

Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were almost chosen as the first option for biological and biosensor applications due to their enhancement and their outstanding properties. The combining of optical fiber with localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) for forming a biosensor is widely used in diagnosis. In this work, we report a fiber optical biosensor based on LSPR of Au NPs for the detection of bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein. BSA was functionalized on Au NPs immobilized fiber optic sensing head (length of 1 cm) via methanesulfonic acid (MSA) by carboxylic binding. It is the binding between the analytes with the surface-modified Au NPs that caused refractive index changes in the sensing medium led to changes in optical power at the output of the sensor. The detection limit of the LSPR fiber biosensor was found to be 0.18 ng/mL for the BSA detection with the low coefficient of variation (CV) at under 1%. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of combining multimode fiber with Au NPs to generate the biosensor as the label-free sensor that can be a feasible tool for highly sensitive, rapid response time, stable, and miniaturized point-of-care analytical systems.

Measuring solution concentration plays an important role in chemical, biochemical, clinical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and biological analyses. In this work, we develop a transmission-mode localized surface plasmon resonance sensor chip system and convenient method which is highly efficient, highly sensitive for detection sensing using multimode fiber. The plasmonically active sensor’s surface AuNPs with high-density NPs were decorated onto 1 cm sensing length of various clad-free fiber in the form of homogeneous monolayer utilizing a self-assembly process for immobilization of the target molecule. The carboxyl bond is formed through a functional reaction on the sensor head. Using the significance in the refractive index difference and numerical aperture, which is caused by a variation in the concentration of measuring bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein which can be accurately measured by the output signal. The refractive index variation of the medium analyte layer can be converted to signal output power change at the He–Ne wavelength of 632.8 nm. The sensor detection limit was estimated to be 0.075 ng ml−1 for BSA protein which shows high sensitivity compared to other types of label-free optical biosensors. This also leads to a possibility of finding the improvement in the sensitivity label-free biosensors. The conventional method should allow multimode fiber biosensors to become a possible replacement for conventional biosensing techniques based on fluorescence.

We present the optical coupling of the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)-conjugated dye molecule into fiber optical modes for detecting fluorescence with the enhanced signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. This near field coupling of the excited state of organic dye (FAM) molecules into the fiber multimodes occurs by immobilizing them on the exposed surface of fiber core, permitting the coupled light to be guided along the fiber for detection. This fiber based scheme is the first attempt to single out the fluorescence using fiber modes not for carrying excitation light but only for collecting emission light via the dye-fiber coupling. The emission-selective coupling into fiber modes turns out to be effective in reducing the unwanted background noise arising from both the false detection of excitation light and bulk autofluorescence. This scheme differs from the previously reported fluorescence sensors based on waveguides where guided modes at λex excite dye molecules via their evanescent fields. In addition, the local fields enhanced by AgNPs in close proximity to FAM molecules on the fiber core surface increase the rates of dye excitation and radiative decay/AgNP supported surface plasmon coupled emission. While focusing on demonstrating the proof-of-concept of the scheme presented, we obtain the maximum of 4.2-fold enhancement of the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio in detecting fluorescence as compared to a conventional fluorescence detection scheme. The results presented in the fiber-based scheme may find an application where high S/N ratio fluorescence based biochemical assay is required in a small-sized device with remote sensing capability.

Brownmillerite Ca2Fe2O5 has been observed to exhibit many outstanding properties that are applicable to ecotechnology. However, very little work on doped Ca2Fe2O5 compounds has been carried out to widen their application scope. We present herein a detailed study of the crystalline/geometric and electronic structures and magnetic and electrical properties of Ca2−x La x Fe2O5 (x = 0 to 1) prepared by conventional solid-state reaction. X-ray diffraction patterns indicated that the compounds with x = 0 to 0.05 exhibited brownmillerite-type single phase. La doping with higher content (x ≥ 0.1) stimulated additive formation of Grenier- (LaCa2Fe3O8) and perovskite-type (LaFeO3) phases. Extended x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy at the Fe K-edge and electron spin resonance spectroscopy revealed presence of Fe3+ in the parent Ca2Fe2O5 (x = 0) and both Fe3+ and Fe4+ in the doped compounds (x ≥ 0.05). The Fe4+ content tended to increase with increasing x. This stimulates ferromagnetic exchange interactions between Fe3+ and Fe4+ ions and directly influences the magnetic properties of Ca2−x La x Fe2O5. Electrical resistivity (ρ) measurements in the temperature range of T = 20 K to 400 K revealed that all the compounds exhibit insulator behavior; the ρ(T) data for x ≥ 0.1 could be described based on the adiabatic small polaron hopping model.

We present improved quality factors of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in a prism-based Kratschman configuration by using double the number of metal–dielectric layers for extended long-range surface plasmon. These multilayers lead to the coupling of multi-plasmonic waves for enhanced depth-to-width ratio (Γ) of the SPR dip of the reflectance curve. We use a transfer matrix approach to numerically simulate the curve of reflectance versus incident angle with each layer thickness optimized. We find that the four layers comprising doubled Teflon-Ag multilayers produce Γ higher than a single layer of Ag by a factor of about 122. These enhanced Γ (related to enhanced quality factor of the SPR wave) that lead to enlarged depth of SPR evanescent field penetration, can readily find applications in fluorescence detection with its efficiency elevated, which is required for fluorescence-based assays where weak fluorescent signals are expected, such as biological diagnosis that uses small volumes of liquid containing fluorescent dyes.

We have prepared Zn1−x Co x Fe2O4 nanoparticles (NPs) by using a hydrothermal method, and then studied their structural and magnetic properties. The analyses of x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and Raman scattering spectra reveal that the samples crystallized mainly in a cubic-spinel structure with the lattice parameter a ≈ 8.4 A. Averaged crystallite sizes determined from the XRD linewidth are about 16–22 nm, close to the particle sizes of 19–28 nm determined from scanning electron microscopy images. Magnetization measurements versus temperature, M(T), in the field H = 100 Oe indicate that the ferromagnetic–paramagnetic (FM-PM) phase transition temperature (T C) of Zn1−x Co x Fe2O4 NPs increases from 606 K for x = 0 to ~823 K for x = 1. The features of the M(T) curves also indicate magnetic inhomogeneity in the samples, and their magnetic property is unstable versus temperature. This is ascribed to the changes in the structural characterization and/or concentration of magnetic ions situated at the A and B sites in the spinel lattice. At room temperature, we found that both the saturation magnetization (M s) and coercivity (H c) increase with increasing Co content, with M s = 59–70 emu/g and H c = 100–1100 Oe. These results reflect that the Co doping into ZnFe2O4 NPs greatly improves their magnetic property, making them more useful for practical applications. Additionally, we also assess magnetic interactions and the magnetocaloric effect in the samples based on analyzing initial magnetization data, M(H), recorded at temperatures around T C.

Rapid, accurate, portable, and large-scale diagnostic technologies for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) are crucial for controlling the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The current standard technologies, i.e., reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, serological assays, and computed tomography (CT) exhibit practical limitations and challenges in case of massive and rapid testing. Biosensors, particularly electrochemical conducting polymer (CP)-based biosensors, are considered as potential alternatives owing to their large advantages such as high selectivity and sensitivity, rapid detection, low cost, simplicity, flexibility, long self-life, and ease of use. Therefore, CP-based biosensors can serve as multisensors, mobile biosensors, and wearable biosensors, facilitating the development of point-of-care (POC) systems and home-use biosensors for COVID-19 detection. However, the application of these biosensors for COVID-19 entails several challenges related to their degradation, low crystallinity, charge transport properties, and weak interaction with biomarkers. To overcome these problems, this study provides scientific evidence for the potential applications of CP-based electrochemical biosensors in COVID-19 detection based on their applications for the detection of various biomarkers such as DNA/RNA, proteins, whole viruses, and antigens. We then propose promising strategies for the development of CP-based electrochemical biosensors for COVID-19 detection., Graphical abstract Image 1

We present a label-free optical fiber based sensor device to detect copper ions (Cu2+) in water. A multimode optical fiber, with its polymer cladding removed along a 1-cm length, is used for the optical sensor head, where the injected Cu2+ in the liquid phase acts as a liquid cladding for the optical mode. The various Cu2+ concentrations modulate the numerical aperture (NA) of the liquid cladding waveguide part. The degree of NA mismatch between the liquid cladding and solid cladding guided parts gives rise to an optical power transmittance change, forming the sensing principle. The presented liquid cladding fiber sensor exhibits a minimum resolvable refractive index of 2.48 &times, 10&minus, 6. For Cu2+ detection, we functionalize the sensor head surface (fiber core) using chitosan conjugated ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) which captures Cu2+ effectively due to the enhanced chelating effects. We obtain a limit of detection of Cu2+ of 1.62 nM (104 ppt), which is significantly lower than the tolerable level in drinking water (~30 &micro, M), and achieve a dynamic range of 1 mM. The simple structure of the sensor head and the sensing system ensures the potential capability of being miniaturized. This may allow for in-situ, highly-sensitive, heavy metal sensors in a compact format.

Plasmonic enhancement of fluorescence from SYBR Green I conjugated with a double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) amplicon is demonstrated on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products. Theoretical computation leads to use of the bimetallic (Au 2 nm-Ag 50 nm) surface plasmons due to larger local fields (higher quality factors) than monometallic (Ag or Au) ones at both dye excitation and emission wavelengths simultaneously, optimizing fluorescence enhancement with surface plasmon coupled emission (SPCE). Two kinds of reverse Kretschmann configurations are used, which favor, in signal-to-noise ratio, a fluorescence assay that uses optically dense buffer such as blood plasma. The fluorescence enhancement (12.9 fold at maximum) with remarkably high reproducibility (coefficient of variation (CV) < 1%) is experimentally demonstrated. This facilitates credible quantitation of enhanced fluorescence, however unlikely to obtain by localized surface plasmons. The plasmon-induced optical gain of 46 dB due to SPCE-active dye molecules is also estimated. The fluorescence enhancement technologies with PCR enables LOD of the dsDNA template concentration of ≈400 fg µL-1 (CV < 1%), the lowest ever reported in DNA fluorescence assay to date. SPCE also reduces photobleaching significantly. These technologies can be extended for a highly reproducible and sufficiently sensitive fluorescence assay with small volumes of analytes in multiplexed diagnostics.

We present the immunoassay of tau proteins (total tau and phosphorylated tau) in human sera using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) fiber sensors. This assay aimed at harvesting the advantages of using both SPR fiber sensors and a blood-based assay to demonstrate label-free point-of-care-testing (POCT) patient-friendly assay in a compact format for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). For conducting the assay, we used human sera of 40 subjects divided into halves, which were grouped into AD patients and control groups according to a number of neuropsychological tests. We found that on an average, the concentrations of both total tau and phosphorylated tau proteins (all known to be higher in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the brain) turned out to be higher in human sera of AD patients than in controls. The limits of detection of total tau and phosphorylated tau proteins were 2.4 pg mL−1 and 1.6 pg mL−1, respectively. In particular, it was found that the AD group exhibited average concentration of total tau proteins 6-fold higher than the control group, while concentration of phosphorylated tau proteins was 3-fold higher than that of the control. We can attribute this inhomogeneity between both types of tau proteins (in terms of increase of control-to-AD in average concentration) to un-phosphorylated tau proteins being more likely to be produced in blood than phosphorylated tau proteins, which possibly is one of the potential key elements playing an important role in AD progress.

We demonstrated modulation of the waveguide mode mismatch via liquid cladding of the controllable refractive index for label-free quantitative detection of concentration of chemical or biological substances. A multimode optical fiber with its core exposed was used as the sensor head with the suitable chemical modification of its surface. Injected analyte liquid itself formed the liquid cladding for the waveguide. We found that modulation of the concentration of analyte injected enables a degree of the waveguide mode mismatch to be controlled, resulting in sensitive change in optical power transmission, which was utilized for its real-time quantitative assay. We applied the device to quantitating concentration of glycerol and bovine serum albumin (BSA) solutions. We obtained experimentally the limit of detection (LOD) of glycerol concentration, 0.001% (volume ratio), corresponding to the resolvable index resolution of ∼1.02 × 10–6 RIU (refractive index unit). The presented sensors also exhibited reasonably...

Zn 1-a Fe 2+a O 4+δ (ZFO) and Mn 1+b Fe 2-b O 4-δ (MFO) nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared through a hydrothermal method. The samples crystallized in the cubic spinel structure belonging to the Fd 3 ¯ m space group. Their magnetic properties differ substantially from those obtained by other works, such as saturation magnetization ( M s ) values of 80.5 emu/g for ZFO NPs and 30.7 emu/g for MFO NPs (at 300 K). Using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), the sample formulas were deduced to be Zn 0.30 Fe 2.70 O 4.14 for ZFO NPs and Mn 1.12 Fe 1.88 O 3.74 for MFO NPs. Raman scattering (RS) spectroscopy showed that our samples are mixed spinel ferrites while X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) proved that Mn and Fe in the samples have mixed valances. RS and XAS together with Fourier transformed (FT) analyses of XAS data revealed detailed compositions of Z n 0.13 2 + F e 0.87 3 + Z n 0.17 2 + F e 0.92 3 + F e 0.91 2 + O 4.14 for ZFO NPs and M n 0.07 2 + F e 0.93 3 + M n 1.05 3 + F e 0.29 3 + F e 0.66 2 + O 3.74 for MFO NPs. We also found that MFO NPs have more spin canting than ZFO NPs. The thermal stability of ZFO NPs is better than that of MFO NPs, leading to a thinner magnetically dead layer in ZFO NPs.