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Optical Fiber Sensing and Its Applications

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 737

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), US Department of Energy (DOE), 626 Cochrans Mill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15236, USA
Interests: nanocomposite thin films; nanomaterials; chemical sensors; optical fiber sensor; chemical sensing materials
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fiber optic sensing is a technology that uses optical fibers to measure the physical properties of light as it travels along a fiber; this is in order to detect changes in temperature, strain, vibration (acoustics), and other parameters. This technology has attracted substantial attention globally and has been the subject of research for decades due to its unique advantages, such as its flexible design for in situ and in vivo analysis, its ability to perform the online monitoring of various entities in hostile environments, and its insensitivity to electromagnetic disturbances.

This Special Issue aims to collect articles that present the novel and innovative application of sensors and devices based on optical fiber sensors.

The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  • Novel designs and fabrication techniques for optical fiber sensors.
  • The integration of functional materials in optical fiber sensors.
  • New chemical sensing materials for methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, etc.
  • The application of optical fiber sensing in environmental and industrial monitoring.
  • Fiber optic-based distributed sensing systems.

We invite researchers and practitioners to contribute original research articles, review articles, short communications, and letters that advance our understanding and utilization of optical fiber sensing technology.

Dr. Ki-Joong Kim
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • optical fiber sensing
  • fiber optic sensor design
  • environmental monitoring
  • distributed sensing
  • chemical sensing materials

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 2210 KB  
Article
A Synthetic Pathway for Producing Carbon Dots for Detecting Iron Ions Using a Fiber Optic Spectrometer
by Ariana Adkisson, Dean Gouramanis, Ki-Joong Kim, Ward Burgess, Nicholas Siefert and Scott Crawford
Sensors 2025, 25(19), 6066; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25196066 - 2 Oct 2025
Viewed by 359
Abstract
Iron detection is of growing importance in the critical minerals sector, where unwanted iron ions are typically removed during the processing of target critical metals. The ideal sensor should utilize inexpensive, scalable materials along with a low-cost, robust, and easy-to-use analysis platform. Here, [...] Read more.
Iron detection is of growing importance in the critical minerals sector, where unwanted iron ions are typically removed during the processing of target critical metals. The ideal sensor should utilize inexpensive, scalable materials along with a low-cost, robust, and easy-to-use analysis platform. Here, we demonstrate a simple acid–base synthesis of luminescent iron-responsive carbon dots by reacting ethanolamine, phosphoric acid, and m-phenylenediamine. The carbon dots exhibit selective, iron-specific emission quenching, with the ability to detect part-per-billion levels of iron ions even in 0.1 M HCl. After benchmarking the purified materials using a commercial spectrometer, a “low-cost” process is demonstrated in which carbon dots with minimal purification are coupled with a portable fiber-optic spectrometer for analyzing iron content. Carbon dot-coated paper strips are also evaluated as another convenient platform for iron analysis. Taken together, the sensing material and platforms demonstrated here are well-suited for detecting trace quantities of iron in environmentally relevant conditions, with potential applications in tracking iron removal processes during critical mineral production as one exciting area of interest. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Fiber Sensing and Its Applications)
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