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Applications of Optical Sensing and Laser Spectroscopy in Gas Detection
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Applications of Optical Sensing and Laser Spectroscopy in Gas Detection

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 May 2025 | Viewed by 13368

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Qiang Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China
Interests: photothermal/photoacoustic spectroscopy; optical gas sensors; laser spectroscopy
Prof. Dr. Yu Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Laboratory for Advanced Combustion, School of Automotive Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
2. Foshan Xianhu Laboratory, Xianhu Hydrogen Valley, Foshan 528200, China
Interests: laser diagnostics in combustion; laser spectroscopy; carbon neutral fuel; soot formation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the global environmental, ecological, and energy problems garnering ever-increasing attention, gas sensors demonstrate unprecedented importance in accurately quantifying the multiple parameters of concentration, temperature, pressure, etc. for monitoring, controlling, and optimization efforts. Among the various types of gas sensors, laser-based optical ones offer combined features of accuracy, sensitivity, selectivity, portability, fast response, and safety, benefiting the applications in many potential multidisciplinary domains that develop and use gas sensors for fundamental or applied research. In turn, the demand for gas detection has promoted the development of laser-based optical sensing, leading to a laser spectroscopy boom in new technologies and methods.

This Special Issue focuses on the most recent research and development related to optical gas sensors. The purpose is to highlight the most recent progress of laser spectroscopy benefited from novel laser sources, advanced spectroscopic methods, and prosperous applications across a variety of fields. As such, the Special Issue welcomes high-quality original papers or reviews reporting the latest gas detection technologies and their applications, especially those revealing the prospective opportunities offered by the unique features of laser spectroscopy, in a wide range of topics, including but not limited to the following:

  • Advanced optical gas sensing systems;
  • Application of laser spectroscopy for environmental, biological, medical, and combustion diagnosis;
  • Innovative techniques and methods in optical sensing;
  • Applications of gas sensing systems in extreme environments;
  • Field applications of laser spectroscopy.

Prof. Dr. Qiang Wang
Prof. Dr. Yu Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • optical gas sensing
  • laser spectroscopy
  • photothermal/photoacoustic spectroscopy
  • advanced laser diagnostics
  • combustion diagnostics

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 5826 KiB  
Article
Direct Measurement of Dissolved Gas Using a Tapered Single-Mode Silica Fiber
by Panpan Sun, Mengpeng Hu, Licai Zhu, Hui Zhang, Jinguang Lv, Yu Liu, Jingqiu Liang and Qiang Wang
Sensors 2024, 24(10), 3200; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24103200 - 17 May 2024
Viewed by 2574
Abstract
Dissolved gases in the aquatic environment are critical to understanding the population of aquatic organisms and the ocean. Currently, laser absorption techniques based on membrane separation technology have made great strides in dissolved gas detection. However, the prolonged water–gas separation time of permeable [...] Read more.
Dissolved gases in the aquatic environment are critical to understanding the population of aquatic organisms and the ocean. Currently, laser absorption techniques based on membrane separation technology have made great strides in dissolved gas detection. However, the prolonged water–gas separation time of permeable membranes remains a key obstacle to the efficiency of dissolved gas analysis. To mitigate these limitations, we demonstrated direct measurement of dissolved gas using the evanescent-wave absorption spectroscopy of a tapered silica micro-fiber. It enhanced the analysis efficiency of dissolved gases without water–gas separation or sample preparation. The feasibility of this sensor for direct measurement of dissolved gases was verified by taking the detection of dissolved ammonia as an example. With a sensing length of 5 mm and a consumption of ~50 µL, this sensor achieves a system response time of ~11 min and a minimum detection limit (MDL) of 0.015%. Possible strategies are discussed for further performance improvement in in-situ applications requiring fast and highly sensitive dissolved gas sensing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Optical Sensing and Laser Spectroscopy in Gas Detection)
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12 pages, 1576 KiB  
Article
Investigation of Slagging Condition in a Zhundong Coal-Fired Boiler via In Situ Optical Measurement of Gaseous Sodium
by Li Guo, Haofan Wang, Xian Li, Xiangxi Wang, Nanxi Bie, Bin Yao, Weijun Zhen, Jian Li, Chun Lou and Hong Yao
Sensors 2024, 24(2), 488; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24020488 - 12 Jan 2024
Viewed by 897
Abstract
In this study, a portable spectral analysis instrument based on spontaneous emission spectroscopy (SES) was developed for the in situ, non-intrusive, and quantitative measurement of gaseous Na inside ZD coal-fired boilers, which is mainly applied for predicting slagging in furnaces. This technology is [...] Read more.
In this study, a portable spectral analysis instrument based on spontaneous emission spectroscopy (SES) was developed for the in situ, non-intrusive, and quantitative measurement of gaseous Na inside ZD coal-fired boilers, which is mainly applied for predicting slagging in furnaces. This technology is needed urgently because the problem of fouling and slagging caused by high alkali metals in ZD coal restricts the rational utilization of this coal. The relative extended uncertainty for the measurement of gaseous Na concentration is Urel = 10%, k = 2, which indicates that measurement data are reliable under working conditions. It was found that there is a clear linear relationship between the concentration of gaseous Na and fouling in high-alkali coal boilers. Therefore, a fast and efficient method for predicting the slagging and fouling of high-alkali coal boilers can be established by using this in situ online real-time optical measurement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Optical Sensing and Laser Spectroscopy in Gas Detection)
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9 pages, 2825 KiB  
Communication
A Width Measurement Method of Line Shape Based on Second Harmonic Peak and Modulation Amplitude
by Shan Lin, Jun Chang, Jiachen Sun, Zihan Wang and Minghui Mao
Sensors 2023, 23(1), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23010476 - 1 Jan 2023
Viewed by 1535
Abstract
The line width of different line shapes is a very important parameter in absorption spectroscopy sensing techniques. Based on the high sensitivity and low noise properties of wavelength modulation spectroscopy, we report a novel line width measurement method. After theoretically proving the relationship [...] Read more.
The line width of different line shapes is a very important parameter in absorption spectroscopy sensing techniques. Based on the high sensitivity and low noise properties of wavelength modulation spectroscopy, we report a novel line width measurement method. After theoretically proving the relationship between line width, modulation amplitude and the amplitude of the second harmonic at the center frequency, the absorption lines of CH4 near 6046.96 cm−1 and CO2 4989.97 cm−1 were chosen for simulation, and the relative errors of the line width between our method and theoretical data were kept at about 1%. A distributed feedback laser diode operating near 1653 nm with three different concentrations of CH4 was used for experimental validation, and the results were consistent with the numerical simulation. Additionally, since only the peaks of second harmonic need to be measured, the advantages of wavelength modulation can be utilized while reducing the difficulty of data acquisition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Optical Sensing and Laser Spectroscopy in Gas Detection)
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11 pages, 3713 KiB  
Article
Tomographic Absorption Spectroscopy for H2O Transport in a Laminar Jet with Inverse Concentration Gradient
by Kin-Pang Cheong, Dingfeng Shi, Shaotong Liu, Junjun Wu, Kun Duan, Yong Song and Wei Ren
Sensors 2022, 22(16), 5939; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22165939 - 9 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1881
Abstract
We report a tomographic absorption spectroscopy (TAS) study of water vapor transport in a laminar jet issuing into the ambient. The jet was generated using compressed dry air that was straightened by a honeycomb and a smooth contraction nozzle. A TAS scheme using [...] Read more.
We report a tomographic absorption spectroscopy (TAS) study of water vapor transport in a laminar jet issuing into the ambient. The jet was generated using compressed dry air that was straightened by a honeycomb and a smooth contraction nozzle. A TAS scheme using the water vapor in the ambient as absorbing species and the absorption line near 1368.598 nm was proposed to study the H2O transport in the laminar jet with an inverse concentration gradient. One-dimensional tomography was conducted at various heights above the nozzle, and the results were validated by the predictions from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Particularly, the variations in the concentration gradient in the shear layer at different heights were captured. The 2D distribution of water concentration in the dry laminar jet was obtained experimentally. The present study shows that TAS has great potential in the research of mass transfer and scalar field of gaseous flows. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Optical Sensing and Laser Spectroscopy in Gas Detection)
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16 pages, 7929 KiB  
Article
In Situ Measurement of NO, NO2, and H2O in Combustion Gases Based on Near/Mid-Infrared Laser Absorption Spectroscopy
by Jing Li, Renjie Li, Yan Liu, Fei Li, Xin Lin, Xilong Yu, Weiwei Shao and Xiang Xu
Sensors 2022, 22(15), 5729; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22155729 - 31 Jul 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3314
Abstract
In this study, a strategy was developed for in situ, non-intrusive, and quantitative measurement of the oxides of nitrogen (NO and NO2) to describe emission characteristics in gas turbines. The linear calibration-free wavelength modulation spectroscopy (LCF-WMS) approach combined with the temperature [...] Read more.
In this study, a strategy was developed for in situ, non-intrusive, and quantitative measurement of the oxides of nitrogen (NO and NO2) to describe emission characteristics in gas turbines. The linear calibration-free wavelength modulation spectroscopy (LCF-WMS) approach combined with the temperature profile-fitting strategy was utilized for trace NO and NO2 concentration detection with broad spectral interference from gaseous water (H2O). Transition lines near 1308 nm, 5238 nm, and 6250 nm were selected to investigate the H2O, NO, and NO2 generated from combustion. Experiments were performed under different equivalence ratios in a combustion exhaust tube, which was heated at 450–700 K, with an effective optical length of 1.57 m. Ultra-low NOx emissions were captured by optical measurements under different equivalence ratios. The mole fractions of H2O were in agreement with the theoretical values calculated using Chemkin. Herein, the uncertainty of the TDLAS measurements and the limitation of improving the relative precision are discussed in detail. The proposed strategy proved to be a promising combustion diagnostic technique for the quantitative measurement of low-absorbance trace NO and NO2 with strong H2O interference in real combustion gases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Optical Sensing and Laser Spectroscopy in Gas Detection)
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9 pages, 2773 KiB  
Communication
Frequency-Domain Detection for Frequency-Division Multiplexing QEPAS
by Xiang Chen, Hao Liu, Mai Hu, Lu Yao, Zhenyu Xu, Hao Deng and Ruifeng Kan
Sensors 2022, 22(11), 4030; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22114030 - 26 May 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1815
Abstract
To achieve multi-gas measurements of quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) sensors under a frequency-division multiplexing mode with a narrow modulation frequency interval, we report a frequency-domain detection method. A CH4 absorption line at 1653.72 nm and a CO2 absorption line at 2004.02 [...] Read more.
To achieve multi-gas measurements of quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) sensors under a frequency-division multiplexing mode with a narrow modulation frequency interval, we report a frequency-domain detection method. A CH4 absorption line at 1653.72 nm and a CO2 absorption line at 2004.02 nm were investigated in this experiment. A modulation frequency interval of as narrow as 0.6 Hz for CH4 and CO2 detection was achieved. Frequency-domain 2f signals were obtained with a resolution of 0.125 Hz using a real-time frequency analyzer. With the multiple linear regressions of the frequency-domain 2f signals of various gas mixtures, small deviations within 2.5% and good linear relationships for gas detection were observed under the frequency-division multiplexing mode. Detection limits of 0.6 ppm for CH4 and 2.9 ppm for CO2 were simultaneously obtained. With the 0.6-Hz interval, the amplitudes of QEPAS signals will increase substantially since the modulation frequencies are closer to the resonant frequency of a QTF. Furthermore, the frequency-domain detection method with a narrow interval can realize precise gas measurements of more species with more lasers operating under the frequency-division multiplexing mode. Additionally, this method, with a narrow interval of modulation frequencies, can also realize frequency-division multiplexing detection for QEPAS sensors under low pressure despite the ultra-narrow bandwidth of the QTF. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Optical Sensing and Laser Spectroscopy in Gas Detection)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Direct dissolved gas measurement using a bi-tapered single-mode silica fiber
Authors: Panpan Sun, Mengpeng Hu, Licai Zhu, Jingqiu Liang, Qiang Wang
Affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing for Optical Systems (CAS), Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China
Abstract: Dissolved gases in the aquatic environment are imperative to understand the population of aquatic organisms and the ocean. For most laser-absorption technologies, the use of permeable membranes for sampling has become one of critical obstacles that plagued the efficiency in analyzing dissolved gases. To mitigate these limitations, we design an evanescent-wave direct absorption spectroscopic sensor based on a bi-tapered silica micro-fiber. The detection of dissolved ammonia, as an example, is demonstrated to verify the feasibility of directly measuring dissolved gases without the need for water-gas separation or sample preparation. With a sensing length of 5 mm and a consumption of ~50 μL, this sensor achieves a minimum detection limit of 0.015% and a response time of ~11 min. Further improvement strategies are also fully discussed for its future in-situ applications that need fast and sensitive dissolved gas sensing.

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