Environmental Monitoring Exploiting Optical Fiber Biosensors. The Case of Naphthalene Detection in Water

We have developed and characterized a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor in a plastic optical fiber (POF) to detect traces of naphthalene (NAPTHA) in water. As previously developed for perfluorinated compounds (PFAs), the gold surface of the plasmonic POF sensor has been chemically modified through the formation of specific reactive groups and functionalized with antibodies able to specifically recognize the NAPTHA. The obtained limit of detection value (0.76 ng/mL) is lower than the maximum residue limit value of naphthalene (0.13 µg/mL) referred as the water environmental quality standards.