pH sensor based on sol-gel silica layer deposited on a plastic optical fiber with blue bromophenol

Design and characterization of a pH optical fiber sensor with a pH sensitive dye is described in this paper. TEOS (Tetra-ethyl-Orto-Silicate) was used to dope a plastic optical fiber, which will be used as the optical probe (OPTRODE). The sensor is prepared by fixing the doped plastic fiber on a fused ortosilica block surface with blue bromophenol. The fiber surface charged with silica modified the refractive index, which plays an important roll on the fiber, modifies the conditions of light propagation into the plastic optical fiber. The fiber transmittance is used to measure the pH of a solution or a fluid in a range between 4 and 7; such signal is captured by a photodetector and processed with a LabView program. The advantage of this system is that, 2cm of doped fiber are enough to measure the pH of a fluid in real time. The time response of the sensor reported in the present study is approximately 10s.