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Optical Biochemical Sensor Systems and Applications

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2018) | Viewed by 54952

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Prof. Dr. Luigi Zeni

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1. Department of Engineering, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Roma 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy
2. IREA-CNR, Via Diocleziano 328, 80124 Napoli, Italy
Interests: optical fiber sensors; distributed optical fiber sensors; nano and micro sensors; biosensors and chemical sensors; integrated optics sensors and optoelectronic devices
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Prof. Dr. Aldo Minardo

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Department of Engineering, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via Roma, 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Interests: distributed optical fiber sensors; structural health monitoring; polymer optical fiber sensors
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Prof. Dr. Nunzio Cennamo

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Department of Engineering, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via Roma 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Interests: optical sensors; biosensors and chemical sensors; optical fiber sensors and optoelectronic devices
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Optical sensors are nowadays exploited in numerous important fields, including pharmaceutical research, medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, agriculture, industrial applications, food safety and security. In fact, and whenever fast, portable, low cost and/or rugged devices are needed for detection and identification. Point distributed and quasi-distributed sensing techniques exploiting optical devices are used in a wide variety in the above applications.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together researchers active in the development of innovative optical transducer schemes, functional materials and receptors, nanostructures, and applications of optical biochemical sensor systems. Work addressing all aspects of this technology are sought, including, but not limited to, recent developments in: New configurations based on distributed and point sensing in optical fibers; hybrid devices; novel experimental setup to improve sensitivity, miniaturization, multiplexing capabilities and microfluidic integration; optical integrated biosensor systems (lab-on-a-chip); new bio/chemical receptors for optical sensors; and new optical devices for biochemical sensing.

Both review articles and original research papers are sought. There is particular interest in papers concerning new applications and innovative approaches in biosensing based on optical platforms.

Prof. Dr. Luigi Zeni
Prof. Aldo Minardo
Dr. Nunzio Cennamo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

optical sensors
optical chemical sensors
optical biosensors
distributed and quasi-distributed sensing techniques

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Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 15271 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fabrication of Multimode-Single Mode Polymer Fiber Tweezers for Single Cell Trapping and Identification with Improved Performance

by Sandra M. Rodrigues, Joana S. Paiva, Rita S. R. Ribeiro, Olivier Soppera, João P. S. Cunha and Pedro A. S. Jorge

Sensors 2018, 18(9), 2746; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18092746 - 21 Aug 2018

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4092

Abstract

Optical fiber tweezers have been gaining prominence in several applications in Biology and Medicine. Due to their outstanding focusing abilities, they are able to trap and manipulate microparticles, including cells, needing any physical contact and with a low degree of invasiveness to the trapped cell. Recently, we proposed a fiber tweezer configuration based on a polymeric micro-lens on the top of a single mode fiber, obtained by a self-guided photopolymerization process. This configuration is able to both trap and identify the target through the analysis of short-term portions of the back-scattered signal. In this paper, we propose a variant of this fabrication method, capable of producing more robust fiber tips, which produce stronger trapping effects on targets by as much as two to ten fold. These novel lenses maintain the capability of distinguish the different classes of trapped particles based on the back-scattered signal. This novel fabrication method consists in the introduction of a multi mode fiber section on the tip of a single mode (SM) fiber. A detailed description of how relevant fabrication parameters such as the length of the multi mode section and the photopolymerization laser power can be tuned for different purposes (e.g., microparticles trapping only, simultaneous trapping and sensing) is also provided, based on both experimental and theoretical evidences. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Biochemical Sensor Systems and Applications)

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10 pages, 1980 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Selective Monitoring of Oxyanion Mixtures by a Flow System with Raman Detection

by Félix Zapata, Fernando Ortega-Ojeda, Carmen García-Ruiz and Miguel González-Herráez

Sensors 2018, 18(7), 2196; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18072196 - 8 Jul 2018

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4460

Abstract

Raman spectroscopy is a selective detection system scarcely applied for the flow analysis of solutions with the aim of detecting several compounds at once without a previous separation step. This work explores the potential of a portable Raman system in a flow system for the selective detection of a mixture of seven oxyanions (carbonate, sulphate, nitrate, phosphate, chlorate, perchlorate, and thiosulphate). The specific bands of these compounds (symmetric stretching Raman active vibrations of carbonate at 1068 cm⁻¹, nitrate at 1049 cm⁻¹, thiosulphate at 998 cm⁻¹, phosphate at 989 cm⁻¹, sulphate at 982 cm⁻¹, perchlorate at 935 cm⁻¹, and chlorate at 932 cm⁻¹) enabled their simultaneous detection in mixtures. Although the oxyanions’ limit of detection (LOD) was rather poor (in the millimolar range), this extremely simple system is very useful for the single-measurement detection of most of the oxyanions in mixtures, without requiring a previous separation step. In addition, quantitative determination of the desired oxyanion can be performed by means of the corresponding calibration line. These are important advantages for controlling in-line processes in industries like those manufacturing fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, or food, among others. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Biochemical Sensor Systems and Applications)

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13 pages, 2635 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Hypersensitivity and Applications of Cladding Modes of Optical Fibers Coated with Nanoscale Metal Layers

by Jacques Albert, Fu Liu and Violeta Marquez-Cruz

Sensors 2018, 18(5), 1518; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18051518 - 11 May 2018

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3564

Abstract

Theoretical and experimental results are presented to show that the complex effective index of the modes of optical fibers coated with non-uniform metal coatings of gold, silver, copper, or palladium, with thicknesses between 0 and 20 nm, acquire a greatly enhanced sensitivity to various forms of perturbations. Thickness changes of less than 1 nm can be measured as well as the binding of record low concentrations of chemical and biochemical species. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Biochemical Sensor Systems and Applications)

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11 pages, 5637 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Measuring the Human Ultra-Weak Photon Emission Distribution Using an Electron-Multiplying, Charge-Coupled Device as a Sensor

by Fernando Ortega-Ojeda, Matías Calcerrada, Alejandro Ferrero, Joaquín Campos and Carmen Garcia-Ruiz

Sensors 2018, 18(4), 1152; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18041152 - 10 Apr 2018

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6384

Abstract

Ultra-weak photon emission (UPE) is the spontaneous emission from living systems mainly attributed to oxidation reactions, in which reactive oxygen species (ROS) may play a major role. Given the capability of the next-generation electron-multiplying CCD (EMCCD) sensors and the easy use of liquid crystal tunable filters (LCTF), the aim of this work was to explore the potential of a simple UPE spectrometer to measure the UPE from a human hand. Thus, an easy setup was configured based on a dark box for inserting the subject’s hand prior to LCTF as a monochromator and an EMCCD sensor working in the full vertical binning mode (FVB) as a spectra detector. Under controlled conditions, both dark signals and left hand UPE were acquired by registering the UPE intensity at different selected wavelengths (400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, and 700 nm) during a period of 10 min each. Then, spurious signals were filtered out by ignoring the pixels whose values were clearly outside of the Gaussian distribution, and the dark signal was subtracted from the subject hand signal. The stepped spectrum with a peak of approximately 880 photons at 500 nm had a shape that agreed somewhat with previous reports, and agrees with previous UPE research that reported UPE from 420 to 570 nm, or 260 to 800 nm, with a range from 1 to 1000 photons s⁻¹ cm⁻². Obtaining the spectral distribution instead of the total intensity of the UPE represents a step forward in this field, as it may provide extra information about a subject’s personal states and relationship with ROS. A new generation of CCD sensors with lower dark signals, and spectrographs with a more uniform spectral transmittance, will open up new possibilities for configuring measuring systems in portable formats. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Biochemical Sensor Systems and Applications)

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12 pages, 3633 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optical Method for Estimating the Chlorophyll Contents in Plant Leaves

by Madaín Pérez-Patricio, Jorge Luis Camas-Anzueto, Avisaí Sanchez-Alegría, Abiel Aguilar-González, Federico Gutiérrez-Miceli, Elías Escobar-Gómez, Yvon Voisin, Carlos Rios-Rojas and Ruben Grajales-Coutiño

Sensors 2018, 18(2), 650; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020650 - 22 Feb 2018

Cited by 81 | Viewed by 10882

Abstract

This work introduces a new vision-based approach for estimating chlorophyll contents in a plant leaf using reflectance and transmittance as base parameters. Images of the top and underside of the leaf are captured. To estimate the base parameters (reflectance/transmittance), a novel optical arrangement is proposed. The chlorophyll content is then estimated by using linear regression where the inputs are the reflectance and transmittance of the leaf. Performance of the proposed method for chlorophyll content estimation was compared with a spectrophotometer and a Soil Plant Analysis Development (SPAD) meter. Chlorophyll content estimation was realized for Lactuca sativa L., Azadirachta indica, Canavalia ensiforme, and Lycopersicon esculentum. Experimental results showed that—in terms of accuracy and processing speed—the proposed algorithm outperformed many of the previous vision-based approach methods that have used SPAD as a reference device. On the other hand, the accuracy reached is 91% for crops such as Azadirachta indica, where the chlorophyll value was obtained using the spectrophotometer. Additionally, it was possible to achieve an estimation of the chlorophyll content in the leaf every 200 ms with a low-cost camera and a simple optical arrangement. This non-destructive method increased accuracy in the chlorophyll content estimation by using an optical arrangement that yielded both the reflectance and transmittance information, while the required hardware is cheap. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Biochemical Sensor Systems and Applications)

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16 pages, 4999 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Surface Plasmon Resonance and Bending Loss-Based U-Shaped Plastic Optical Fiber Biosensors

by Ariadny Da S. Arcas, Fábio Da S. Dutra, Regina C. S. B. Allil and Marcelo M. Werneck

Sensors 2018, 18(2), 648; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020648 - 22 Feb 2018

Cited by 94 | Viewed by 8355

Abstract

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a large and diverse bacteria group that inhabits the intestinal tract of many mammals. Most E. coli strains are harmless, however some of them are pathogenic, meaning they can make one sick if ingested. By being in the feces of animals and humans, its presence in water and food is used as indicator of fecal contamination. The main method for this microorganism detection is the bacterial culture medium that is time-consuming and requires a laboratory with specialized personnel. Other sophisticated methods are still not fast enough because they require sending samples to a laboratory and with a high cost of analysis. In this paper, a gold-coated U-shaped plastic optical fiber (POF) biosensor for E. coli bacteria detection is presented. The biosensor works by intensity modulation principle excited by monochromatic light where the power absorption is imposed by predominant effect of either bending loss or surface plasmon resonance (SPR), depending on the gold thickness. Bacterial selectivity is obtained by antibody immobilization on the fiber surface. The biosensor showed a detection limit of 1.5 × 10³ colony-forming units (CFU)/mL, demonstrating that the technology can be a portable, fast response and low-cost alternative to conventional methodologies for quality analysis of water and food. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Biochemical Sensor Systems and Applications)

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14 pages, 12202 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Flow Cytometric Fluorescence Lifetime with Time-Delay Estimation of Pulse Signals

by Lianqing Zhu, Wenchang Zhang, Mingli Dong and Xiaoping Lou

Sensors 2018, 18(2), 442; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020442 - 3 Feb 2018

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5751

Abstract

The measurement of fluorescence lifetimes emerged in flow cytometry because it is not impacted by the non-linearity, which occurs in fluorescence intensity measurements. However, this significantly increases the cost and complexity of a traditional flow cytometer. This work reports a simple method of fluorescence lifetime measurement of a flow cytometer based on the cytometric fluorescence pulse time-delay estimation and hardware time-delay calibration. The modified chirp Z-transform (MCZT) algorithm, combined with the algorithm of fine interpolation of correlation peak (FICP), is applied to improve the temporal resolution of the cross-correlation function of the scattering and fluorescence signals, which in turn improves the time-delay estimation accuracy. The estimation accuracy is verified by Gauss fitting. Cells that were labeled simultaneously with three-color reagents are measured; the statistical results of 5000 cells are compared with reference values and are verified with the pulse width variation. The results show the potential of fluorescence lifetime measurements in the traditional flow cytometer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Biochemical Sensor Systems and Applications)

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6270 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Lab-on-a-Chip-Based Non-Invasive Optical Sensor for Measuring Glucose in Saliva

by Dong Geon Jung, Daewoong Jung and Seong Ho Kong

Sensors 2017, 17(11), 2607; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17112607 - 13 Nov 2017

Cited by 51 | Viewed by 9948

Abstract

A lab-on-a-chip (LOC)-based non-invasive optical sensor for measuring glucose in saliva was fabricated. Existing glucose sensors utilizing blood require acquisition of a blood sample by pricking the finger, which is painful and inconvenient. To overcome these limitations, we propose a non-invasive glucose sensor with LOC, micro-electro-mechanical system and optical measurement technology. The proposed sensor for measuring glucose in saliva involves pretreatment, mixing, and measurement on a single tiny chip. Saliva containing glucose and glucose oxidase for glucose oxidation are injected through Inlets 1 and 2, respectively. Next, H₂O₂ is produced by the reaction between glucose and glucose oxidase in the pretreatment part. The saliva and generated H₂O₂ are mixed with a colorizing agent injected through Inlet 3 during the mixing part and the absorbance of the colorized mixture is measured in the measurement part. The absorbance of light increases as a function of glucose concentration at a wavelength of 630 nm. To measure the absorbance of the colorized saliva, a light-emitting diode with a wavelength of 630 nm and a photodiode were used during the measurement part. As a result, the measured output current of the photodiode decreased as glucose concentration in the saliva increased. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Biochemical Sensor Systems and Applications)

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