Physico-chemical properties of organically modified silicates' sol-gel layers for optical fibre sensors

Eliza Chodkowska; Jan Rayss

doi:10.1117/12.714696

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12 October 2006 Physico-chemical properties of organically modified silicates' sol-gel layers for optical fibre sensors

Eliza Chodkowska, Jan Rayss

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Proceedings Volume 6347, Photonics Applications in Astronomy, Communications, Industry, and High-Energy Physics Experiments 2006; 63471D (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.714696
Event: Photonics Applications in Astronomy, Communications, Industry, and High-Energy Physics Experiments 2006, 2006, Wilga, Poland

Abstract

The paper concerns the investigation of modified silica gel materials applied in optical fibre sensors. These materials are products of a sol-gel process in which three kinds of alkoxysilanes undergo hydrolysis and condensation and may play a role of the matrices containing transducer's molecules in the active layer of the sensor. In the experiment presented below three different compositions comprising tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) and phenyltriethoxysilane (PhTES) were used. The alkoxysilanes underwent hydrolysis and condensation and the obtained gels were investigated in order to determine their texture, strucuture, composition and chemical properties as far as the dependence of those characteristics on the hydrolysis time and the molar ratio of the ingredients in the initial sols. The methods employed in the experiment were: Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) which delivered vital information about the gels' textures, contact angles' and surface charge's measurements serving to estimate chemical properties of the gels' surfaces, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) which helped to evaluate the hydrolysis' rate and porosimetric measurements enabling a determination of BET surface area and average diametres of the pores. The results may occur important for improving the construction of optical fibre sensors in which organically modified silicates (ORMOSILs)-TEOS layes are used.

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Eliza Chodkowska and Jan Rayss "Physico-chemical properties of organically modified silicates' sol-gel layers for optical fibre sensors", Proc. SPIE 6347, Photonics Applications in Astronomy, Communications, Industry, and High-Energy Physics Experiments 2006, 63471D (12 October 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.714696

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