Optical Fiber Sensor for Heavy Chemical Detection: An Overview

Abstract

Heavy metal contaminations such as mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc are becoming more serious and have become a hazard to human health. Due to their nonbiodegradable nature, they can easily accumulate in the environment and cause toxicity even at low concentrations. Therefore, detecting the presence of these metal ions requires a highly sensitive sensing method. Traditional detection methods, such as electrochemical analysis, require complicated sample preparation, are costly, and typically require a lengthy measurement period. These days, optical fiber sensors have been acknowledged due to their unique characteristics such as compact size, high sensitivity, low cost, high flexibility, and immunity to electromagnetic interference. An overview of an optical fiber sensor technology for heavy chemical measurement is discussed in this paper. The sensing mechanisms are summarized, as well as the chemical water quality parameters and sensitivities.