Fiber optic flow system for potable water monitoring

The principle of the operation of a fiber optic chemical sensor (FOCS) is a chemically sensitive receptor part, which can be called as a chemooptical interface. This interface converts information on the analyte into changes of optical signal. In the case of the designed system, an appropriate reagent exhibiting changes in absorbance is immobilized on a polymeric support in a form of small beads. Such modified polymers are then loaded into a tube in order to construct a flow through sensor. The following reagents were used: bromothymol blue as pH-sensitive indicator, Chlorophosphonazo III as calcium-sensitive indicator, and 4-(2-pyridylazo)-resorcinol (PAR) as heavy metal indicator. The paper describes the immobilization procedures, tests of the flow through sensors with their calibration characteristics as well as system design considerations.