Design of a fuel adulteration detector sensor based on surface plasmon resonance

A new surface plasmon resonance (SPR) mechanism based photonic crystal fiber (PCF) biosensor has been investigated to probe petrol adulteration in the bio-sensing research field. The adulteration level is assumed and measured at normal room temperature (298 K or 25 degrees C) based on the petrol mixture and concentration in adulterated fuel. The SPRPCF full vector simulation is run on a simulation software called COMSOL Multiphysics (Version 5.3a) by applying the differential finite element method. The mesh elements are applied at their finest. The geometry of the proposed sensor is optimized by varying the adulteration level of the fuel (10%, 20%, 30%, 40% & 50% concentration), plasmonic layer width, analyte layer length, fiber core diameter, and plasmonic materials (Gold, Niobium, Platinum). The maximum performance of amplitude sensitivity of 320 RIU-1 and wavelength sensitivity of 7352 nm/RIU are recorded by the optimization of fiber geometry and choosing platinum as plasmonic material for a 10% petrol adulteration level. The proposed PCF sensor has also shown higher linear response. As a result, this SPR-PCF sensor is a worthy candidate for measuring the adulteration of bio-fuel or petrol.

Automated summary

In this study, a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) biosensor based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) mechanism was investigated for detecting petrol adulteration in bio-sensing research. The performance of the proposed sensor was optimized by varying various parameters such as adulteration level, plasmonic layer width, analyte layer length, fiber core diameter, and plasmonic materials. The results showed that the maximum sensitivity was achieved for a 10% petrol adulteration level using platinum as the plasmonic material.