Explosives sensing based on suspended core fiber coated with conjugated polymer

Abstract

Suspended core fibers with voids surrounding the core coated with conjugate polymer were used to detect nitroaromatic explosives based on the fluorescence quenching technique. The background Raman signal from a suspended core fiber was used as reference to optimize coupled into the core of the fiber. The fluorescence spectra were integrated across all wavelengths to extract the integrated fluorescence intensity at regular time intervals. Fluorescence decay lifetimes were obtained by fitting a single exponential decay and were used to detect 1,4-dinitrobenzene (DNB), a member of the nitroaromatics family of explosives, in acetone solutions at concentrations as low as 6.3 ppm.