Due to the risks that water contamination implies for human health and environmental protection, monitoring the quality of water is a major concern of the present era. Therefore, in recent years several efforts have been dedicated to the development of fast, sensitive, and selective sensors for the detection of heavy metal ions. In particular, fluorescent sensors have gained in popularity due to their interesting features, such as high specificity, sensitivity, and reversibility. Thus, this review is devoted to the recent advances in fluorescent sensors for the monitoring of these contaminants, and special focus is placed on those devices based on fluorescent aptasensors, quantum dots, and organic dyes.

The measurement of chemical and biomedical parameters can take advantage of the features exclusively offered by optical fibre: passive nature, electromagnetic immunity and chemical stability are some of the most relevant ones. The small dimensions of the fibre generally require that the sensing material be loaded into a supporting matrix whose morphology is adjusted at a nanometric scale. Thanks to the advances in nanotechnology new deposition methods have been developed: they allow reagents from different chemical nature to be embedded into films with a thickness always below a few microns that also show a relevant aspect ratio to ensure a high transduction interface. This review reveals some of the main techniques that are currently been employed to develop this kind of sensors, describing in detail both the resulting supporting matrices as well as the sensing materials used. The main objective is to offer a general view of the state of the art to expose the main challenges and chances that this technology is facing currently.

There exists an increasing interest in monitoring low concentrations of biochemical species, as they allow the early-stage detection of illnesses or the monitoring of the environment quality. Thus, both companies and research groups are focused on the development of accurate, fast and highly sensitive biosensors. Optical fiber sensors have been widely employed for these purposes because they provide several advantages for their use in point-of-care and real-time applications. In particular, this review is focused on optical fiber biosensors based on luminescence and absorption. Apart from the key parameters that determine the performance of a sensor (limit of detection, sensibility, cross-sensibility, etc.), other features are analyzed, such as the optical fiber dimensions, the sensing set ups and the fiber functionalization. The aim of this review is to have a comprehensive insight of the different aspects that must be taken into account when working with this kind of sensors.

Luminescence-based sensing applications range from agriculture to biology, including medicine and environmental care, which indicates the importance of this technique as a detection tool. Luminescent optical sensors are required to be highly stable, sensitive, and selective, three crucial features that can be achieved by fabricating them by means of the layer-by-layer nano-assembly technique. This method permits us to tailor the sensors′ properties at the nanometer scale, avoiding luminophore aggregation and, hence, self-quenching, promoting the diffusion of the target analytes, and building a barrier against the undesired molecules. These characteristics give rise to the fabrication of custom-made sensors for each particular application.

A fluorescent optical fiber sensor for the detection of mercury (Hg²⁺) ions in aqueous solutions is presented in this work. The sensor was based on a fluorophore-labeled thymine (T)-rich oligodeoxyribonucleotide (ON) sequence that was directly immobilized onto the tip of a tapered optical fiber. In the presence of mercury ions, the formation of T–Hg²⁺-T mismatches quenches the fluorescence emission by the labeled fluorophore, which enables the measurement of Hg²⁺ ions in aqueous solutions. Thus, in contrast to commonly designed sensors, neither a fluorescence quencher nor a complementary ON sequence is required. The sensor presented a response time of 24.8 seconds toward 5 × 10⁻¹² M Hg²⁺. It also showed both good reversibility (higher than the 95.8%) and selectivity: the I₀/I variation was 10 times higher for Hg²⁺ ions than for Mn²⁺ ions. Other contaminants examined (Co²⁺, Ag⁺, Cd²⁺, Ni²⁺, Ca²⁺, Pb²⁺, Mn²⁺, Zn²⁺, Fe³⁺, and Cu²⁺) presented an even lower interference. The limit of detection of the sensor was 4.73 × 10⁻¹³ M Hg²⁺ in buffer solution and 9.03 × 10⁻¹³ M Hg²⁺ in ultrapure water, and was also able to detect 5 × 10⁻¹² M Hg²⁺ in tap water.

A simple method to prepare a nano pattern along the surface of an optical fiber is applied in this Letter to develop a pH sensor. The template is made of a block copolymer that defines specific locations where gold nano particles are adsorbed on forming clusters. The average diameter of the resulting agglomerates is 121 nm, and the mean distance between the centers is 182 nm. The morphology of the gold cluster array produces localized surface plasmon resonance. The absorbance spectrum is affected by pH variations, and the ratio between the absorption at two different wavelengths is used to characterize the response, which is repetitive and reversible. This Letter highlights the potentiality of this type of chemical nano patterning for the development of optical fiber sensors.