Scientists develop fiber-optic sensor to detect toxic dyes in water

This development made by scientists from the Institute of Biomedical Systems will raise the quality of environmental monitoring of the aquatic environment to a new level. The Laboratory of Biomedical Nanotechnology developed a fiber-optic sensor with a special layer of carbon nanotubes, which quickly determine the concentration of the most common pollutants in water - industrial dyes.

The results of the study were published in Micromachines journal. There were several organizations worked on the study: MIET, the Scientific-Manufacturing Complex "Technological Centre" and Ulyanovsk State University.

The developed sensor is an optoelectronic system consisting of an optical fiber, connected with the broadband light source (fluorescent lamp) and the spectrometer. The optical fiber is drawn using manufacturing procedures to form a narrowed area. Due to this transformation, the radiation propagating inside the fiber decays into higher-order modes. In this case, a part of the radiation goes beyond the optical fiber and interacts with the environment (dye in water) - and the radiation spectrum changes in accordance with the concentration of the analyzed substance.

The scientists plan to continue researches in the field of development an installation with an integrated optoelectronic chip for simultaneous express multimonitoring of chemical and biochemical substances.

Scientific work is carried out within the framework of the "Priority 2030" program .