Reflective SPR Sensor for Simultaneous Measurement of Nitrate Concentration and Temperature

In this paper, a reflective fiber optic sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was proposed to measure nitrate concentration and temperature simultaneously. The sensor adopted reflective structure, and used gold film as metal film for exciting SPR. Then, Cu-nanoparticles/carbon nanotubes composite film was used as sensitive material to measure nitrate concentration, and it was coated on the surface of the gold film by the dip coating method. Finally, polydimethylsiloxane was coated on part of the sensing probe to produce two independent resonance dips in the output spectrum. When the nitrate concentration and temperature changed, the two resonance dips would all move, but with different sensitivities. By monitoring the wavelength shifts of the two dips, the nitrate concentration and temperature could be measured simultaneously with using the dual-wavelength matrix method. Experimental results demonstrated that the measurement sensitivity of the nitrate concentration could reach 3.25 nm/lg[M], and the temperature measurement sensitivity was -2.02 nm/°C. Moreover, the sensor had high-mechanical strength and was easy to package, which could be applied to remote measurement field.