Optimization of All-Polymer Optical Fiber Oxygen Sensors with Antenna Dyes and Improved Solvent Selection Using Hansen Solubility Parameters.

Rune Inglev,Jonas Højgaard,Ole Bang,Emil Møller,Jakob Janting

doi:10.3390/s21010005

Rune Inglev, Jonas Højgaard + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s21010005

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Abstract

We present an all-polymer optical fiber sensor for the sensing of dissolved oxygen by phase-fluorometry. The sensing matrix is applied as a film on the fiber end-surface, and consists of poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA), the oxygen quenchable luminophore platinum-octaethylporphyrin (PtOEP) and the luminophore coumarin 545T for increasing the brightness of PtOEP by way of resonance energy transfer (RET), also called light harvesting. We show that by using Hansen Solubility Parameters (HSPs), it is possible to quantitatively formulate a solvent mixture with a good solubility of the polymer matrix and the luminophores simultaneously. Our approach can readily be extended to other polymers and luminophores and is therefore a valuable tool for researchers working with photoluminescence and polymeric matrices.

Highlights

Polymer Optical Fiber (POF) sensors with their distal end functionalized for sensing have been around since the early days of fiber-optical sensing
We present a POF sensor for dissolved oxygen using phase-fluorometry, in which the sensing matrix at the distal end of the fiber is of the same polymeric material (PMMA) as the fiber core
The Hansen Solubility Parameters (HSPs) for PMMA were taken from earlier work

Summary

Introduction

Polymer Optical Fiber (POF) sensors with their distal end functionalized for sensing have been around since the early days of fiber-optical sensing. The same principle was soon thereafter used to demonstrate the first fiber-optical oxygen sensor [2]. This is the first fiber-optical oxygen sensor based on a POF. In 1988 Lippitsch et al [3] presented the first fiber-optic oxygen sensor based on the principle of phase-fluorometry. The measurement was performed using modulated excitation light at 460 nm and measuring the phase delay of the 610 nm emission from a ruthenium complex. This was not done with a POF, but the principle of fiber-optical phase-fluorometry began here, and in our work we will utilize this technique

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