4.6 Article

Swelling-Based Distributed Chemical Sensing with Standard Acrylate Coated Optical Fibers

Journal

SENSORS
Volume 21, Issue 3, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/s21030718

Keywords

fiber optics sensors; distributed optical fiber sensor; optical frequency-domain reflectometry; chemical sensing

Funding

  1. Romanian Ministry of Education and Research [34, P_37_788, MySMIS: 103364]
  2. European Regional Development Fund, Competitiveness Operational Program
  3. ANID Chilean National Agency for Research and Development, Basal Project [FB0008]
  4. Fondecyt Regular [1200299]

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Distributed chemical sensing is achieved using standard acrylate coated optical fibers, where swelling of the coating induces strain in the fiber's silica core. This concept has been validated by measuring strain responses of various aqueous and organic solvents. Thermal effects can be discriminated from strain using uncoated fiber segments, leading to more accurate strain readings.
Distributed chemical sensing is demonstrated using standard acrylate coated optical fibers. Swelling of the polymer coating induces strain in the fiber's silica core provoking a local refractive index change which is detectable all along an optical fiber by advanced distributed sensing techniques. Thermal effects can be discriminated from strain using uncoated fiber segments, leading to more accurate strain readings. The concept has been validated by measuring strain responses of various aqueous and organic solvents and different chain length alkanes and blends thereof. Although demonstrated on a short range of two meters using optical frequency-domain reflectometry, the technique can be applied to many kilometer-long fiber installations. Low-cost and insensitive to corrosion and electromagnetic radiation, along with the possibility to interrogate thousands of independent measurement points along a single optical fiber, this novel technique is likely to find applications in environmental monitoring, food analysis, agriculture, water quality monitoring, or medical diagnostics.

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