A Dual-Parameter Optical Fiber SPR Sensor for Simultaneous Measurement of Glucose and Cholesterol Concentrations

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) dual-parameter sensor is designed and fabricated. It was electroless plated with silver on the surface of the core of the plastic-clad optical fiber and a gold film was plated near the end face side to produce the double SPR resonance valleys. 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid (4-MPBA) and
$\beta $
-cyclodextrin (
$\beta $
-CD) were coated separately on the surface of the silver and gold films. 4-MPBA can selectively recognize the structures of cis-vicinal diols, and thus can capture glucose that contains such structures.
$\beta $
-CD is a class of cyclic oligosaccharides whose unique hydrophilic outer surface and lipophilic central cavity help facilitate the formation of inclusion complexes with cholesterol through multiple interactions. The sensor can detect 0–4 mM glucose and 0–500 nM cholesterol, and it has a linear response in the concentration range of 0–0.1 mM glucose and 0–15 nM cholesterol. The sensitivity of glucose and cholesterol concentration of the sensor is 89.6 and 0.994 nm/nM, respectively. The detection limits for quantifying glucose and cholesterol are
$1.12~\mu \text{M}$
and 0.1 nM, respectively. The experimental results also show that the sensor has good selectivity and stability. The proposed technique can be further applied in medicine, environment, and biology monitoring.