| Nerve agents are among the most potent of the chemical warfare agents being highly toxic in both liquid and gaseous form. In this thesis the development of a fiber optic chemical sensor for detection of organophosphorous nerve agent sarin precursor dimethyl-methylphosphonate (DMMP) is presented. The optical fiber sensor developed is based on the modified cladding approach using conducting polymer polypyrrole as a chemo-chromic material. Polypyrrole is synthesized by chemical oxidation and characterized by FTIR and Raman Spectroscopy. To characterize the electrical and optical property changes that come about in polypyrrole upon exposure to DMMP, four probe technique, ellipsometry, thin film transmission are used.; The polypyrrole coating is applied to un-cladded fiber core using two different coating techniques, i.e. in-situ deposition and monomer vapor phase deposition. Preliminary results show an intensity decrease of 2.1% when the sensing element is exposed to 134ppm of DMMP. Three different dopant anions, i.e. 1--5, Napthalene disulphonic acid, Anthraquenone sulphonic acid and Hydrochloric acid, are added to improve the sensor sensitivity. The developed device is tested for DMMP sensitivity optimizations in terms of substrate nature, Cu2+ dopant, waveguide geometry, and light source intensity. The sensitivity optimization has resulted in a 25.75% sensor response and a detection of 26ppm of DMMP concentration. Selectivity and environmental stability of the developed device is investigated. The mechanical property and adhesion investigated using the nanoindentation and ASTM D-4541 pull-off test method. The influence of these adhesion enhancements on the sensor response is investigated. |
