Optical Sensors Based on Silica Aerogel Platforms

Optical Sensors Based on Silica Aerogel Platforms 

In much of the work to date on aerogel sensors, silica aerogel platforms are employed. There are two likely reasons for this. First, much of the prior literature on xerogel-based sensors is based on silica sol-gels, and silica sol-gel chemistry is well tmderstood. Second, monolithic 

Unless otherwise noted, the aerogels were interrogated using standard spectroscopic instrumentation. The sensor respraises are recorded using a number of different types of spectroscopic measurements, including absorpti(Mi spectroscopy, luminescence emission and lifetime measurements, and Raman scattering techniques. 

If an emission signal is due to a single type of luminescent species experiencing one microenvironment, the emission signal can be related to the concentration of quencher ([0) 

Ayers and Hunt constructed a sensor device using a mercury penlamp as the UV light source, a monolithic aerogel disk as the sensing platform, a cut-off filter to select for luminescence, and a photodiode detector. The response of the sensor to 1-760 Torr O2 

---