Guangdong and Hong Kong Joint Research Centre for Optical Fiber Sensors, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of the Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Jul 22;12(29):33163-33172. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c06179. Epub 2020 Jun 17.
Hydrogen as an antioxidant gas has been widely used in the medical and biological fields for preventing cancer or treating inflammation. However, controlling the hydrogen concentration is crucial for practical use due to its explosive property when its volume concentration in air reaches the explosive limit (4%). In this work, a polymer-based microcantilever (μ-cantilever) hydrogen sensor located at the end of a fiber tip is proposed to detect the hydrogen concentration in medical and biological applications. The proposed sensor was developed using femtosecond laser-induced two-photon polymerization (TPP) to print the polymer μ-cantilever and magnetron sputtering to coat a palladium (Pd) film on the upper surface of the μ-cantilever. Such a device exhibits a high sensitivity, roughly -2 nm % when the hydrogen concentration rises from 0% to 4.5% (v/v) and a short response time, around 13.5 s at 4% (v/v), making it suitable for medical and environmental applications. In addition to providing an ultracompact optical solution for fast and highly sensitive hydrogen measurement, the polymer μ-cantilever fiber sensor can be used for diverse medical and biological sensing applications by replacing Pd with other functional materials.
氢气作为一种抗氧化气体，已在医学和生物学领域得到广泛应用，用于预防癌症或治疗炎症。然而，由于其体积浓度在空气中达到爆炸极限（4%）时具有爆炸性，因此控制氢气浓度对于实际应用至关重要。在这项工作中，提出了一种位于光纤尖端末端的基于聚合物的微悬臂梁（μ-悬臂梁）氢气传感器，用于检测医学和生物学应用中的氢气浓度。所提出的传感器使用飞秒激光诱导的双光子聚合（TPP）来打印聚合物μ-悬臂梁，并使用磁控溅射在μ-悬臂梁的上表面涂覆钯（Pd）薄膜。该器件具有高灵敏度，当氢气浓度从 0%上升到 4.5%（v/v）时，大致为-2nm%，响应时间短，在 4%（v/v）时约为 13.5s，适用于医学和环境应用。除了提供用于快速和高灵敏度氢气测量的超紧凑光学解决方案外，聚合物μ-悬臂梁光纤传感器还可以通过用其他功能材料代替 Pd 来用于各种医学和生物学传感应用。
