Back to Search
Start Over
Hydrogel-Based Plasmonic Sensor Substrate for the Detection of Ethanol
- Source :
- Sensors, Vol 19, Iss 6, p 1264 (2019)
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2019.
-
Abstract
- The in-line monitoring of ethanol concentration in liquids is a crucial part of process monitoring in breweries and distilleries. Current methods are based on infrared spectroscopy, which is time-consuming and costly, making these methods unaffordable for small and middle-sized companies. To overcome these problems, we presented a small, compact, and cost-effective sensing method for the ethanol content, based on a nanostructured, plasmonically active sensor substrate. The sensor substrate is coated with an ethanol-sensitive hydrogel, based on polyacrylamide and bisacrylamide, which induces a change in the refractive index of the substrate surface. The swelling and shrinking of such hydrogels offer a means to measure the ethanol content in liquids, which can be determined in a simple transmittance setup. In our study, we demonstrated the capability of the sensor principle for the detection of ethanol content ranging from 0 to 30 vol% ethanol. Furthermore, we determined the response time of the sensor substrate to be 5.2 min, which shows an improvement by a factor of four compared to other hydrogel-based sensing methods. Finally, initial results for the sensor’s lifetime are presented.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14248220
- Volume :
- 19
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- Sensors
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.fa577c617c374406b17af41742bcd0d3
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/s19061264