9402540 Shahriari The research aims to develop and test a fiber optic sensor for pH and dissolved oxygen monitoring simultaneously in sea water. This sensor will utilize a porous glass optical fiber immobilized with pH and oxygen sensitive photochemical compounds via a sol- gel coating technique. The microporous nature of the non- densified sol-gel coatings, in which photochemical dyes are immobilized, provides a unique local environment that is environmentally stable and immune to photochemical bleaching and chemical leaching due to decomposition or degradation of the immobilized photochemical compounds. The research for the proposed fiber optic sensor consists of three parts: (i) development of an optical coating material which is photochemically sensitive to both pH and dissolved oxygen, and characterization of its optical and photochemical properties; (ii) preparation of a fiber optic pH/dissolved oxygen sensor based upon this coating, and determination of its photochemical stability and optical quality; (iii) evaluation of the sensor in simulated sea water environments in an effort to optimize the sensor parameters under a range of chemical and physical conditions. Such a development offers potential applications for marine environmental monitoring. In this proposed reseach the combined resources of Rutgers' Fiber Optic Materials Research Program (FOMRP) and those of its Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences will be devoted to development and implementation of optical fiber pH/DO sensor for monitoring of sea water.
