Development of absorption fiber optic sensor for distributed measurement of ammonia gas

Polymer-clad silica optical fibers are employed for development of different absorption optic fiber sensors of gaseous analytes. In our case, the physical principles of the detection are combined with a chemical reaction between analyte and suitable opto-chemical absorption reagents. Selected organometallic complex reagents with different lengths of lateral aliphatic chains are studied with respect to the type of central ions and their coordinative conditions to surrounding ligands. The effect of solvent type on solubility and the long-term stability of the prepared reagents in solid matrix are presented and discussed. Various methods are also tested in order to achieve an effective reagent immobilization into the polymer matrix, which creates optical fiber cladding. The chemical reaction of the reagents with ammonia based on ligand exchange process is accompanied by changes of visible-near-infrared optical absorption influencing via evanescent field on the guided light intensity. Experimental results suggest that the selected reagents provide optical properties suitable for practical sensing applications and that the sensitized PCS optical fibers could be used for detection of ammonia gas.