A simple sensor fabrication process for ammonia fluorescence based optical sensing has been developed by immobilizing fluorescence pair dyes in a UV-photocurable acrylate host polymer matrix. The direct process for optical sensor was designed by entrapping ammonia sensitive components in a certain ratio of acrylate monomers of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and butyl acrylate (BA). The copolymers poly(methyl metha-co-butyl acrylate) (MB) glassy transparent thin film ammonia sensor was photopolymerized under ultra-violet (UV) illumination. The acrylate based host matrix offers rapid curing, ease of preparation, excellent dyes entrapment and self-adhesive properties. The nonplasticized acrylate matrix containing ammonia sensitive components have demonstrated excellent sensitivity towards target analyte with linear sensor response to dissolved ammonia in the range of 1 to 100 μgL-1 (R2 of 0.9) with a limit detection of 1 μgL-1ammonia. The simple single step fabrication of ammonia fluorescence based optical sensor offers great manufacturing capability for aquaculture quality monitoring.

Date Published: 2 June 2014
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 9157, 23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors, 91574A (2 June 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2058517

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9157:
23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors
José M. López-Higuera; Julian D. C. Jones; Manuel López-Amo; José Luis Santos, Editor(s)