Nanoporous Zeolite Thin Film-Based Fiber Intrinsic Fabry-Perot Interferometric Sensor for Detection of Dissolved Organics in Water

• Main Authors: Hai Xiao, Luzheng Zhang, Junhang Dong, Cunqiang Sun, Juan Hui, Ning Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2006-08-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: Fiber chemical sensor; zeolite; white light interferometry; dissolved organics.
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/6/8/835/

A fiber optic intrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric (IFPI) chemical sensor wasdeveloped by fine-polishing a thin layer of polycrystalline nanoporous MFI zeolitesynthesized on the cleaved endface of a single mode fiber. The sensor operated bymonitoring the optical thickness changes of the zeolite thin film caused by the adsorption oforganic molecules into the zeolite channels. The optical thickness of the zeolite thin filmwas measured by white light interferometry. Using methanol, 2-propanol, and toluene as themodel chemicals, it was demonstrated that the zeolite IPFI sensor could detect dissolvedorganics in water with high sensitivity.