Investigation on fabrication and VOC sensing properties of PDMS fiber based optical sensor.

• A physical stretching method for preparing PDMS-based fiber structure is reported. • The PDMS fiber is coupled with two multimode fibers by adhesion, forming an interferometer. • The PDMS fiber based interferometer sensor has good sensitivity to VOC gases. • The sensor has merits of simple preparation, high sensitivity, good tensile properties, and humidity resistance. In this paper, a method for preparing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based fiber structure was reported and its performance for volatile organic compound (VOC) gas sensing was demonstrated. The PDMS fiber prepared by the physical stretching method was coupled at the end faces of two multimode fibers by adhesion, forming an inter-mode interferometer. The PDMS was not easily dislodged after curing, which contributes to the strong robustness of the whole structure. When the PDMS optical fiber is exposed to VOC gas environment, PDMS will adsorb VOC gas molecules, resulting in changes in its refractive index and volume, which shifts the wavelength of inter-mode interference. Experiments show that the sensor has good sensitivity to VOC gases such as acetone, ethanol, and methanol. In the concentration range of 0–400 ppm, the sensitivity reaches 14.84 pm/ppm, 13 pm/ppm, 4.39 pm/ppm, 7.37 pm/ppm, and 5.99 pm/ppm for acetone, ethanol, methanol, toluene, and ether respectively. The proposed sensor has excellent characteristics such as simple preparation, high sensitivity, good tensile properties, and humidity resistance, which indicates that the sensor has some potential for VOC gas detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]