Fiber Optical Micro-Detectors for Oxygen Sensing in Power Plants

Abstract

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 3 O 2 quenching of the red emission from hexanuclear molybdenum chloride clusters. High temperature measurements of the emission of clusters in sol gel films show that the luminescence intensity from the films follow a 1/T relationship from room temperature to 150 °C, and then declines at a slower rate at higher temperatures. The large number of photons available at 230 °C is consistent with simple low cost optics for fiber optic probes based on the emission from clusters in sol gel films.3