졸-겔 필름을 이용한 반사형 광섬유 pH 센서의 개발

Abstract

A reflection-type fiber-optic pH sensor, which is composed of a pH sol-gel film, plastic optical fibers, a mirror, a light source and a spectrometer, is developed in this study. As pH indicators, a bromthymol blue, a cresol red and a thymol blue are used, and they are immobilized in the sol-gel films. The emitted light from a light source is guided by a fiber-optic Y-coupler and plastic optical fibers to the pH sol-gel film in a pH sensing probe. The pH change in the sensing probe gives rise to a change in the color of the pH sol-gel film, and the optical characteristic of reflected light through the pH sol-gel film is also changed. Therefore, we have measured the spectra of reflected lights, which are changed according to the color variations of the pH sol-gel films with different pH values, by using of a spectrometer. Also, the relationships between the pH values and the intensities of reflected lights are obtained on the basis of the color variations of the pH sol-gel films.