Porous polymer optical fiber fabrication and potential biomedical application

In this paper we propose a new and cost-effective fabrication scheme for porous polymer optical fibers. Different porous polymer fibers made from polycarbonate (PC) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) using this method have been thermally drawn and characterized. Porosity in the fiber cladding is introduced by the absorbed water in one layer of the polymer fiber preforms under heat treatment and/or thermal drawing, and can be controlled by adjusting the water concentration. In addition, we have shown that the fabricated porous polymer fibers have the potential application in localized drug delivery for cancer treatment.