Polysaccharide hydrogel optical fibers and their fabrication and use

Abstract

Optical fibers containing wet-spun multi-layer hydrogel cladding with ionic-crosslinked polysaccharides are provided. Optical fibers can be formed with step- or gradient-index architectures, fusion splicing, and facile rare-earth ion doping. Plasmonic nanoparticles, functionalized light-sensitive quantum dots, or particles can be incorporated into the fiber core to generate a resonance light shift upon the presence and binding of molecular biotargets for biosensor applications. The integration of plasmonic hydrogel fibers with medical swabs provides for rapid detection of pathogens such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2). The inclusion of living cells allows for the non-invasive digitalization and quantification of complex biological responses such as cancer proliferative invasion and discovery of anti-cancer drug susceptibility thresholds.

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