Functional Nanomaterial Coatings on Optical Fibers: Toward Enhanced Biosensing Performance

This work explores the recent advances in the integration of functional nanomaterial coatings with optical fibers to enhance the biosensing performance applied to various domains, including medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and food safety. Optical fiber-based biosensors have shown significant advantages over planar/chip-based technology, such as unique control in guiding light, extreme miniaturization, lightness, and remote capabilities. Through different techniques, such as surface plasmon resonance, evanescent wave sensing, or other resonance-based approaches, these biosensors showcase rapid, highly selective, and accurate detection of target analytes. Nanomaterials, such as metals, oxides, and polymers, are employed as functional coatings to improve not only sensitivity, specificity, and stability under challenging conditions but also multianalyte sensing and multifunctionality. Advanced nanotechnological fabrication methods, such as electrospinning, chemical vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, and self-assembly monolayer, allow precise control over nanomaterial coating, optimizing the performance in different applications. Despite low-cost scalability, reproducibility in complex environments mimicking clinical settings, and effective surface functionalization remain open challenges in the field, promising solutions for real-world deployment in terms of point-of-care diagnostics and in vivo sensing are showcased.