UNAM-National Nanotechnology Research Center and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey.
Anal Chem. 2013 Jul 2;85(13):6384-91. doi: 10.1021/ac4008013. Epub 2013 Jun 20.
A novel optoelectronic nose for analysis of alcohols (ethanol and methanol) in chemically complex environments is reported. The cross-responsive sensing unit of the optoelectronic nose is an array of three distinct hollow-core infrared transmitting photonic band gap fibers, which transmit a specific band of IR light depending on their Bragg mirror structures. The presence of alcohol molecules in the optofluidic core quenches the fiber transmissions if there is an absorption band of the analyte overlapping with the transmission band of the fiber; otherwise they remain unchanged. The cumulative response data of the fiber array enables rapid, reversible, and accurate discrimination of alcohols in chemically complex backgrounds such as beer and fruit juice. In addition, we observed that humidity of the environment has no effect on the response matrix of the optoelectronic nose, which is rarely achieved in gas-sensing applications. Consequently, it can be reliably used in virtually any environment without precalibration for humidity or drying the analytes. Besides the discussed application in counterfeit alcoholic beverages, with its superior sensor parameters, this novel concept proves to be a promising contender for many other applications including food quality control, environmental monitoring, and breath analysis for disease diagnostics.
本文报道了一种用于分析化学环境中醇类（乙醇和甲醇）的新型光电鼻。光电鼻的交叉响应传感单元是由三个不同的中空芯红外透射光子带隙光纤组成的阵列，这些光纤根据布拉格镜结构传输特定的红外光带。如果分析物的吸收带与光纤的传输带重叠，则存在于光流体芯中的醇分子会猝灭光纤的传输；否则，光纤的传输保持不变。光纤阵列的累积响应数据可快速、可逆、准确地识别啤酒和果汁等化学复杂背景下的醇类。此外，我们观察到环境湿度对光电鼻的响应矩阵没有影响，这在气体传感应用中很少见。因此，它可以在几乎任何环境中可靠使用，无需对湿度进行预校准或干燥分析物。除了在假冒酒精饮料方面的讨论应用外，这种新型概念还具有出色的传感器参数，有望在许多其他应用中得到应用，包括食品质量控制、环境监测以及用于疾病诊断的呼吸分析。
