Fiber Optical Micro-Detectors for Oxygen Sensing in Power Plants Progress Report (open access)

Fiber Optical Micro-Detectors for Oxygen Sensing in Power Plants Progress Report

A reflection mode fiber optic oxygen sensor is being developed that can operate at high temperatures for power plant applications. The sensor is based on the {sup 3}O{sub 2} quenching of the red emission from hexanuclear molybdenum chloride clusters. Two critical materials issues are the cluster's ability to withstand high temperatures when immobilized in a porous the sol-gel support, and whether after heating to high temperatures, the sol-gel matrix maintains a high and constant permeability to oxygen to support rapid quenching of luminescence. We used a composite materials approach to prepare stable sensing layers on optical fibers. We dispersed 60 w/w% of a pre-cured sol-gel composite containing the potassium salt of molybdenum clusters (K{sub 2}Mo{sub 6}Cl{sub 14}) into a sol-gel binder solution, and established the conditions necessary for deposition of sol-gel films on optical fibers and planar substrates. The fiber sensor has an output signal of 5 nW when pumped with an inexpensive commercial 365 nm ultraviolet light emitting diode (LED). Quenching of the sensor signal by oxygen was observed up to a gas temperature of 175 C with no degradation of the oxygen permeability of the composite after high temperature cycling. On planar substrates the cluster containing composite responds …
Date: July 1, 2005
Creator: Baker, Gregory L.; Ghosh, Ruby N.; III, D.J. Osborn & Zhang, Po
System: The UNT Digital Library
Fiber Optical Micro-Detectors for Oxygen Sensing in Power Plants Progress Report (open access)

Fiber Optical Micro-Detectors for Oxygen Sensing in Power Plants Progress Report

A reflection mode fiber optic oxygen sensor that can operate at high temperatures for power plant applications is being developed. The sensor is based on the {sup 3}O{sub 2} quenching of the red emission from hexanuclear molybdenum chloride clusters. One of the critical materials issues is to demonstrate that the luminescent cluster immobilized in the sol-gel porous support can withstand high temperature. At the same time the sol-gel matrix must have a high permeability to oxygen. Using a potassium salt of the molybdenum clusters, K{sub 2}Mo{sub 6}Cl{sub 14}, we have established the conditions necessary for deposition of optical quality sol-gel films. From spectroscopic measurements of the film we have shown that the cluster luminescence is stable following heat cycling of 54 hours at 200 C. Quenching of a factor of 1.5X between pure nitrogen and 21% oxygen was observed from in-situ measurements of films heated directly at 200 C. An automated system for characterizing fiber optic oxygen sensors up to 220 C with a temporal resolution better than 10 s is under construction. We estimate a signal of 6 x 10{sup 8} photons/s after complete quenching in 21% oxygen. These are promising results for a high temperature fiber optical oxygen …
Date: April 1, 2005
Creator: Baker, Gregory L.; Ghosh, Ruby N.; III, D.J. Osborn & Zhang, Po
System: The UNT Digital Library
Fiber Optical Micro-Detectors for Oxygen Sensing in Power Plants Progress Report (open access)

Fiber Optical Micro-Detectors for Oxygen Sensing in Power Plants Progress Report

A reflection mode fiber optic oxygen sensor that can operate at high temperatures for power plant applications is being developed. The sensor is based on the {sup 3}O{sub 2} quenching of the red emission from hexanuclear molybdenum chloride clusters. One of the critical materials issues is to demonstrate that the luminescent cluster immobilized in the sol-gel porous support can withstand high temperature. At the same time the sol-gel matrix must have a high permeability to oxygen. Using a potassium salt of the molybdenum clusters, K{sub 2}Mo{sub 6}Cl{sub 14}, we have established the conditions necessary for deposition of optical quality sol-gel films. From spectroscopic measurements of the film we have shown that the cluster luminescence is stable following heat cycling of 1 hour at 250 C. Quenching of a factor of 4X between pure nitrogen and 21% oxygen was observed for films cured directly at 200 C. These are promising results for a high temperature fiber optical oxygen sensor based on molybdenum chloride clusters.
Date: January 1, 2005
Creator: Baker, Gregory L.; Ghosh, Ruby N.; III, D.J. Osborn & Zhang, Po
System: The UNT Digital Library