Preliminary results of feasibility assessment of an optical Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) based sensor, exploiting a Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) platform, for an early and high sensitivity detection of chemical agents of interest are reported. In this investigation, a Molecularly Imprinted Polymer (MIP) has been used as an artificial receptor in connection with SPR transduction in POF for the selective detection of small molecules in oil-filled power transformer. The proposed device has been experimentally tested for the detection of furfural (furan-2-carbaldehyde), so that the MIP is specific for this substance. This particular kind of synthetic receptor has been used instead of the most usual bio-receptors, in view of the fact that the sample matrix here considered is the transformer oil. Actually, it is widely recognized that bio-receptors poorly perform in non aqueous media.
[1]
Klaus Mosbach,et al.
Molecularly imprinted polymers : useful materials for analytical chemistry ?
,
1997
.
[2]
R. Galatus,et al.
Sensors based on surface plasmon resonance in a plastic optical fiber for the detection of trinitrotoluene
,
2013
.
[3]
G. D’Agostino,et al.
High selectivity and sensitivity sensor based on MIP and SPR in tapered plastic optical fibers for the detection of l-nicotine
,
2014
.
[4]
Luigi Zeni,et al.
Low Cost Sensors Based on SPR in a Plastic Optical Fiber for Biosensor Implementation
,
2011,
Sensors.
[5]
Börje Sellergren,et al.
Noncovalent molecular imprinting: antibody-like molecular recognition in polymeric network materials
,
1997
.