Hydrogel optical fibers functionalized with lumogallion as aluminum ions sensing platform

This article introduces an aluminum ions sensor based on lumogallion-doped hydrogel optical fiber. Hydrogel precursors with different PEGDA concentration were used to fabricate the core and cladding of the hydrogel optical fibers. Lumogallion was physically embedded into the core as fluorescent indicator to detect aluminum ions concentration. The loss of the hydrogel optical fiber is 0.594 dB/cm ± 0.11 dB/cm, which was measured by the cutback method. Aluminum ions can infiltrate into the hydrogel optical fiber core through passive diffusion and react with lumogallion, resulting in fluorescence enhancement effect. The linearity of the prepared sensor is more than 0.991 with the aluminum ions concentration range of 0–35 mM. This hydrogel optical fiber sensor based fluorescence enhancement shows good repeatability and stability. The fiber core and cladding made from PEGDA with biocompatibility have potential applications in the field of biology and medicine.