Development of ratiometric optical fiber sensor for ammonia gas detection

A simple, low cost technique to fabricate a ratiometric optical fiber ammonia (NH3) sensor has been presented. The ratiometric optical fiber ammonia sensor was based on the ammonia induced absorbance change of sensing material Oxazine 170 perchlorate (O170) in ethyl cellulose (EC) with the luminescence intensity of 7-amino-4-trifluoromethyl coumarin (AFC). The observed luminescence intensity from AFC at 487 nm decreased with increasing the ammonia concentration. The sensitivity of optical ammonia sensor is quantified in terms of the ratio I-0/I-100, where I-0 and I-100 represent the detected luminescence intensities in nitrogen and 1000 ppm ammonia concentration, respectively. The experimental result shows that the sensitivity of the ratiometric optical fiber ammonia sensor is estimated to be 1.44. The sensitive optical ammonia sensor based on fluorescence intensity changes of AFC due to the absorption change of Oxazine 170 perchlorate in EC layer with ammonia is achieved. The ratiometric sensing approach presented in this study has the advantage of suppressing spurious fluctuations in the intensity of the excitation source and optical transmission properties of the optical sensor.