Semiconductor Plasmon Enhanced Upconversion toward a Flexible Temperature Sensor

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Biomedical Engineering
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Noninvasive thermometry is vital for human health monitoring and disease diagnosis.
• Developing sensitive, wearable optical temperature sensors presents significant challenges.
• Existing optical temperature detection methods require improvement in sensitivity and wearability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a flexible, biocompatible optical temperature sensor for sensitive, real-time monitoring.
• To combine plasmonic semiconductor W18O49 enhanced upconversion emission (UCNPs/WO) with poly(lactic acid) (PLA) optical fibers.
• To create a wearable sensor with enhanced thermal sensitivity and dual-wavelength emission capabilities.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a flexible optical fiber sensor integrating UCNPs/WO with PLA.
• Utilizing the thermal-sensitive dual-wavelength emissions of UCNPs/WO for ratiometric temperature sensing.
• Characterizing the sensor's temperature response, sensitivity, and detection limit in the physiological range.

Main Results:

• The UCNPs/WO component provided highly thermal-sensitive and enhanced dual-wavelength emissions.
• The PLA optical fiber ensured excellent light transmission and biocompatibility.
• The UCNPs/WO-PLA sensor demonstrated stable, rapid temperature response (298-368 K) with high relative sensitivity (1.53% K-1) and a low detection limit (±0.4 K).

Conclusions:

• A novel, flexible, and biocompatible optical temperature sensor was successfully developed.
• The sensor exhibits excellent performance for real-time physiological temperature monitoring.
• This technology holds significant potential for wearable health monitoring and biotherapy applications.