Tapered plastic optical fiber sensor for detection of ethanol concentration in H2O

This paper presents the preparation and characteristics of an intensity-based tapered plastic optical fiber (POF) coated with a mixture of poly-vinyl alcohol (PVA) and SiO2 for sensing ethanol concentration in H2O. The 1.0 mm-diameter POF was tapered to a diameter of about 730 μm using tensile tester with thermostatic chamber and the total tapered length was 5.0 cm. The tapered section was coated with a sensing element comprising of a mixture of PVA polymer and SiO2 with a ratio of 9.0v%:1.0v%. A thin layer of protective coating was applied on this sensing element after it was thermally cured at 80°C. More light was guided into the core of the POF at sensing area with increasing concentration of ethanol. This effect is depicted from linear increase of light intensity within 630 nm to 644 nm wavelength region. The POF ethanol sensor has shown to exhibit repeatable results for measurement of 2.0% to 10.0% and 0.2% to 1.0% concentration of ethanol in water with the sensor sensitivity measured up to 35.67 per wt% of ethanol concentration.

[1]  Masayuki Morisawa,et al.  Plastic Optical Fiber Sensing of Alcohol Concentration in Liquors , 2012, J. Sensors.

[2]  A. Chiasera,et al.  Enhanced luminescence in Er3+-doped SiO2-ZrO2 glass ceramic waveguide , 2011, 2011 2nd International Conference on Photonics.

[3]  Agostinho Santos,et al.  GC determination of acetone, acetaldehyde, ethanol, and methanol in biological matrices and cell culture. , 2009, Journal of chromatographic science.

[4]  Francisco J. Arregui,et al.  Volatile Organic Compound Optical Fiber Sensors: A Review , 2006, Sensors (Basel, Switzerland).

[5]  Senol Alpat,et al.  Development of an Alcohol Dehydrogenase Biosensor for Ethanol Determination with Toluidine Blue O Covalently Attached to a Cellulose Acetate Modified Electrode , 2010, Sensors.

[6]  Juan Li,et al.  Structure, Mechanical, and Swelling Behaviors of Poly(vinyl alcohol)/SiO2 Hybrid Membranes , 2010 .

[7]  Hypolito José Kalinowski,et al.  Alternative technique for biodiesel quality control using an optical fiber long-period grating sensor , 2007 .

[8]  Marcia Muller,et al.  Refractometric optical fiber sensor for measurement of ethanol concentration in ethanol-gasoline blend , 2009, 2009 SBMO/IEEE MTT-S International Microwave and Optoelectronics Conference (IMOC).

[9]  Masayuki Morisawa,et al.  Plastic optical fibre sensor for detecting vapour phase alcohol , 2001 .

[10]  M. Morisawa,et al.  POF-type optic humidity sensor and its application [as breathing-condition monitor] , 2002, 2002 15th Optical Fiber Sensors Conference Technical Digest. OFS 2002(Cat. No.02EX533).

[11]  Masayuki Morisawa,et al.  A plastic optical fibre sensor for real-time humidity monitoring , 2003 .

[12]  Romeo Bernini,et al.  Perfluorinated Plastic Optical Fiber Tapers for Evanescent Wave Sensing , 2009, Sensors.

[13]  Jie Liu,et al.  Effects of SiO2 and In Situ Crosslinking on the Swelling and Thermal Properties of Poly(vinyl Alcohol)/SiO2 Hybrid Films , 2011 .

[14]  Marcia Muller,et al.  Etched fiber bragg gratings sensors for water-ethanol mixtures: a comparative study , 2010 .

[15]  Marcelo Martins Werneck,et al.  Tapered plastic optical fiber-based biosensor--tests and application. , 2011, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[16]  Patricia Scully,et al.  Plastic optical fibre sensors and devices , 2000 .

[17]  I. Odeh,et al.  An Optical Chemical Sensor Based on Polymer Swelling and Shrinking using Dithiocarbamate-Polymer Microspheres , 1983 .