Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) Optical Fibers for Environment Sensing and Short-range Optical Signal Transmission

Aayush Kumar Jaiswal*, Ari Hokkanen, Markku Kapulainen, Alexey Khakalo, Nonappa Nonappa, Olli Ikkala, Hannes Orelma

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Optical fibers are a key component in modern photonics, where conventionally used polymer materials are derived from fossil-based resources, causing heavy greenhouse emissions and raising sustainability concerns. As a potential alternative, fibers derived from cellulose-based materials offer renewability, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. In the present work, we studied the potential of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to prepare optical fibers with a core-only architecture. Wet-spun CMC hydrogel filaments were cross-linked using aluminum ions to fabricate optical fibers. The transmission spectra of fibers suggest that the light transmission window for cladding-free CMC fibers was in the range of 550-1350 nm, wherein the attenuation coefficient for CMC fibers was measured to be 1.6 dB·cm-1 at 637 nm. CMC optical fibers were successfully applied in touch sensing and respiratory rate monitoring. Finally, as a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate high-speed (150 Mbit/s) short-distance signal transmission using CMC fibers (at 1310 nm) in both air and water media. Our results establish the potential of carboxymethyl cellulose-based biocompatible optical fibers for highly demanding advanced sensor applications, such as in the biomedical domain.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3315-3323
JournalACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Volume14
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Jan 2022
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

The work was part of the Academy of Finland Flagship Programme under Projects No. 318890 and 318891 (Competence Center for Materials Bioeconomy, FinnCERES) and the Academy of Finland Flagship Programme, Photonics Research and Innovation (PREIN), decision number 320168.

Keywords

  • cellulose
  • Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)
  • optical fibers
  • fibers
  • sensing
  • optical fiber sensing
  • sensors
  • green photonics
  • respiratory sensors
  • biosensors
  • Biocompatible Materials/chemistry
  • Respiratory Rate
  • Humans
  • Wearable Electronic Devices
  • Materials Testing
  • Touch
  • Monitoring, Physiologic
  • Carboxymethylcellulose Sodium/chemistry
  • Optical Fibers
  • Carbohydrate Conformation
  • Spectrophotometry

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