Project Title:
Lightweight, Fiber-Optic, Gas Sensor for Monitoring Regenerative Food Production
12.05-3088
912496
Lightweight, Fiber-Optic, Gas Sensor for Monitoring Regenerative Food Production
Physical Optics Corporation, R&D Division
20600 Gramercy Place, Suite 103
Torrance
CA
90501
Edward
Schmidlin
213-320-3088
ARC
NAS2-13517
250
12.05-3088
912496
Abstract:
Lightweight, Fiber-Optic Gas Sensor for Monitoring Regenerative Food Production
This project addresses an innovative system, based on porous optical fibers impregnated
with sensor dyes, that can monitor of gases in regenerative food production facilities.
The firm has been involved in commercializing this new technology for approximately
a year. Essentially, porous fibers provide an immobilization substrate for chemical
indicator dyes in this novel "optrode" style sensing technique. The porous optrode
is attached to a conventional optical fiber and illuminated at a wavelength, or set
of wavelengths, characteristic of the selected indicator dye. As a gaseous substance
diffuses into the porous structure and interacts with the sensor dye, a change in
optical absorbance, wavelength lifetime, or fluorescence intensity is observed. This
optical change can be monitored using simple fiber optic components and inexpensive
photodetectors. Advantages of fiber optic sensor systems when used in spacecraft
include low weight, small size, high reliability (all solid-state components), and
low power usage. In addition, porous fiber sensors are easy to produce, potentially
very rugged, well-suited to the measurement of O2, CO2, humidity, and other gaseous
chemical species, and should be unaffected by low-gravity situations.
The fiber-optic gas sensor has the potential to detect nearly any gas for which an
indicator dye exists, so there are many potential applications for this technology.
Sensors developed specifically for this program would have immediate applications
in the food processing and biotechnology industries.
optrode, porous, gas, sensor, compact, food monitoring