A comprehensive review: materials for the fabrication of optical fiber refractometers based on lossy mode resonance

Lossy mode resonance based sensors have been extensively studied in recent years. The versatility of the lossy mode resonance phenomenon has led to the development of sensors based on different configurations that make use of a wide range of materials. The coating material is one of the key elements in the performance of a refractometer. This review paper intends to provide a global view of the wide range of coating materials available for the development of lossy mode resonance based refractometers.This research was funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (TEC2016-78047-R), the Public University of Navarra (PJUPNA26), and the Spanish Ministry of Universities (FPU15/05663)

An antibacterial coating based on a polymer/sol-gel hybrid matrix loaded with silver nanoparticles

In this work a novel antibacterial surface composed of an organic-inorganic hybrid matrix of tetraorthosilicate and a polyelectrolyte is presented. A precursor solution of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and poly(acrylic acid sodium salt) (PAA) was prepared and subsequently thin films were fabricated by the dip-coating technique using glass slides as substrates. This hybrid matrix coating is further loaded with silver nanoparticles using an in situ synthesis route. The morphology and composition of the coatings have been studied using UV-VIS spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) was also used to confirm the presence of the resulting silver nanoparticles within the thin films. Finally the coatings have been tested in bacterial cultures of genus Lactobacillus plantarum to observe their antibacterial properties. It has been experimentally demonstrated that these silver loaded organic-inorganic hybrid films have a very good antimicrobial behavior against this type of bacteria