Sensors and Actuators B 119 (2006) 615620

A ber optic temperature sensor with an epoxy-glue

membrane as a temperature indicator
Shiquan Tao

, Ashwini Jayaprakash
Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory, Mississippi State University, 205 Research Blvd., Starkville, MS 39759, USA
Received 18 November 2005; received in revised form 6 January 2006; accepted 8 January 2006
Available online 3 March 2006
Abstract
A ber optic temperature sensor for monitoring/detecting ambient temperature ranging from room temperature (25

C) to 100

C has been
described. This sensor uses polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAHs) presenting in a commercially available epoxy glue as the temperature indicator.
The PAHs in the epoxy glue uoresce when excited with a UV light source. The intensity of the uorescence of the PAHs decreases when the
epoxy glue is exposed to an environment of higher temperature. Therefore, the reduction of uorescence signal can be used to indicate temperature.
A simple structured optical ber temperature transducer has been constructed by gluing two silica optical bers together with the epoxy glue. An
optical ber temperature sensor was built up by connecting one of the bers to a UV light emitting diode and the other ber to an optical ber
compatible UVvis spectrometer. The sensor has been tested for monitoring temperature from room temperature up to 100

C. The attenuation of
the uorescence intensity of the ber optic sensor in dB has a linear relationship with temperature in the tested range. In this paper, the principle,
fabrication, response characteristics, calibration, stability of this sensor and possible applications of the temperature sensing principle established
in this work are discussed.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Fiber optic sensor; Temperature sensor; Epoxy glue; Fluorescence quenching
1. Introduction
A precise and accurate measurement/monitoring of tem-
perature is an important part of scientic experiments,
research/development and industrial processes control. Because
temperature affects the physical/chemical properties of almost
every material, many techniques have been developed to
sense/monitor temperature for different applications [13]. For
example, the volumetric expansion of liquid mercury or an
organic liquid in a small capillary has been used for a long time
to measure temperature. The linear expansion of silica optical
bers has been used in designing Bragg grating based optical
ber temperature sensors and FabryP erot interference based
temperature sensors [46]. The electric resistance of metals and
semiconductors is temperature dependent, and temperature sen-
sors have been designed based on measuring the resistance or
conductivity of metal and semiconductor materials. Thermo-

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 662 325 7631; fax: +1 662 325 8465.
E-mail address: tao@dial.msstate.edu (S. Tao).
couples are another class of temperature sensors based on the
measurement of electrical properties. A thermocouple is based
on the measurement of a voltage drop across dissimilar met-
als, which is temperature dependent. Temperature also affects
the resonant frequency of piezoelectric crystal, and temperature
sensors based on this phenomenon have also been reported [7].
Several optical techniques have been used to mea-
sure/monitor temperature. Planks model of blackbody emission
forms the base of temperature measurement through monitoring
infrared emission from a target sample [13]. Optical emissions
from free radicals, atoms or ions in high temperature gas or
plasma have been used to remote monitor temperature of high
temperature furnace, combustion system and rocket tail plume
[810]. The thermochromic response of an organic dye encapsu-
lated in a polymer [11] and thermochromic polymers [12] have
been used to sense temperature. The optical absorption signal
of these thermochromic materials changes with the change of
temperature, which gives a sensing signal.
Fluorescence quenching is another optical spectroscopic
technology used to sense temperature [1315]. An excited u-
orophore molecule can drop back to its ground state through
0925-4005/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.snb.2006.01.034
616 S. Tao, A. Jayaprakash / Sensors and Actuators B 119 (2006) 615620
radiation emission (uorescence) or through collision with
another molecule. The uorescence emission and collision pro-
cesses are in equilibriumfor a systemat certain temperature. The
change of temperature will change the frequency of collision,
and therefore shifts the equilibrium of the two processes. This
shift results in a change of uorescence intensity and the uores-
cence lifetime. Temperature sensors based on the monitoring of
uorescence intensity and the detection of uorescence lifetime
have been developed.
In a uorescence based temperature sensor, the uorescence
agent can be dissolved in a liquid to monitor the temperature
of the liquid droplet in combustion related researches [16]. The
uorescence agent can also be doped into a ceramic material,
a single crystal of a metal oxide or immobilized into a poly-
mer [1419]. The uorophore-impregnated materials can then
be used as a coating on the surface of a target to monitor the
target temperature. The uorophore-impregnated materials can
also be coated on the tip of an optical ber to form a point tem-
perature sensor for monitoring of temperature of specic target,
such as specic tissues in a living animal, a small channel in a
micro chemical reaction system and water in deep ocean [20].
This paper reports a simple ber optic temperature sensor
using a low cost epoxy glue, which is commercially available
from common department stores, as a temperature indicator.
The principle, structure, fabrication, response characteristics and
stability of the sensor are reported.
2. Experimental
2.1. Structure of the temperature sensor of this work
The structure of the temperature sensor of this work is shown
in Fig. 1. The transducer of this sensor consists fromtwo 300 m
silica optical bers (300-EMT, Thorlabs Inc., Newton, NJ) glued
together with an epoxy glue (Super Epoxy, Sussex, WI). The
glued ends of the two bers were inserted into a 700 m inner
diameter quartz capillary. A gold-coated aluminum lm was
glued on the end of the capillary with the epoxy glue in order
to increase the bers efciency of collecting uorescence light
signal. Light from a 410 nm LED (HUUV-5101L-2, Roithner
Lasertechnik GmbH, Vienna, Austria) was directly fed into the
distal end of one of the two optical bers to excite the uo-
rescence of the epoxy glue. The uorescence signal collected
by the second optical ber was guided through the optical ber
and sent to an optical ber compatible UVvis spectrometer
(SD2000, OceanOptic Inc., Dunedin, FL).
Fig. 1. A schematic structure of an optical ber temperature sensor using the
uorescence signal from an epoxy-glue membrane as a temperature indicator.
2.2. Fabrication of the ber optic temperature transducer
The procedure of fabricating the temperature transducer of
this work is very simple. Two 300 m optical bers were end
polished with ber end polish tools from Thorlabs Inc. Equal
amount of the two components of the Super Epoxy were mixed.
A small amount of the epoxy glue mixture was introduced into
one end of a short piece (2 cm) of a 700 m quartz capillary
by sticking the capillary into the newly prepared epoxy glue
mixture. A small piece of the gold-coated aluminum lm was
stuck on the end of the epoxy glue lled capillary. The two
polished optical bers were then inserted into the capillary from
the open end of the capillary. After the epoxy glue solidied,
the optical bers, the capillary and the gold-coated aluminum
lmwere glued together to forma transducer of the temperature
sensor. In preparing the transducer of the temperature sensor,
the amount of the epoxy glue lled into the capillary should
be limited in order to improve the response time of the formed
sensor.
In order to form an optical ber temperature sensor with the
prepared transducer, the distal end of one of the two optical bers
was connected to the optical ber compatible UVvis spectrom-
eter. Light fromthe Roithner UVLEDwas directly injected into
the distal end of another optical ber. The uorescence intensity
signal at 505 nm from the epoxy-glue membrane coated on the
ends of the optical bers was recorded with the UVvis spec-
trometer as a sensing signal.
2.3. Testing the ber optic sensor for temperature sensing
The formedber optic temperature sensor was testedfor sens-
ing gas temperature using a laboratory built testing system as
shown in Fig. 2. An Omega CHAL-015 thermocouple (wire
Fig. 2. A schematic structure of a laboratory set-up for testing the ber optic
temperature sensor.
S. Tao, A. Jayaprakash / Sensors and Actuators B 119 (2006) 615620 617
diameter 0.38 mm) was tied together with the sensing head (the
capillary) of the ber optic sensor. The ber optic sensor head
with the thermocouple was inserted together into one arm of a
T connector as shown in Fig. 2. The two other arms of the
T connector were connected to two gas lines. Compressed
air supplied to our laboratory was used in the test. One of the
two gas lines was wrapped with a heating tape. The tempera-
ture of the gas sample owing through the T connector was
adjusted/controlled through changing the owrate of the two gas
lines. During the test, the temperature of the gas sample owing
through the T connector was changed. The uorescence spec-
trum and the peak wavelength (505 nm) uorescence intensity
of the uorescence signal guided to the spectrometer from one
of the optical bers were recorded.
3. Result and discussion
3.1. Fluorescence property of Super Epoxy
Epoxy glue is one of the most widely used adhesive for
industrial as well as household applications. An epoxy glue is
normally optically transparent, which makes this adhesive very
useful in optical and ber optic industries. In optical instrumen-
tation, epoxy glues are used to glue optical parts to form optical
instruments. Transparent epoxy resins are also used as the pack-
age of LEDs. For example, the LEDused in this work has a clear
epoxy package. In optical ber applications, epoxy glue can be
used to x an optical ber in a ber connector for a specic
application.
The major composition of an epoxy glue is an oxirane
(aliphatic or aromatic) and a curing agent (aliphatic or aromatic
amine) [21]. Therefore, an epoxy glue product from a depart-
ment store normallyhas twoparts, whichhave tobe mixedbefore
use in order to make an epoxy glue adhesive. The oxiranes and
amines are optically inert in visible region. They neither absorb
light in visible region, nor emit uorescence in the visible region.
However, in addition to the major components, an epoxy glue
product normally contains other minor components, either as
impurities or as additives to improve the property of the product.
The Super Epoxy used in this work obviously contains PAHs.
The PAHs are a group of aromatic compounds, which emit u-
orescence in the near UV and visible wavelength region when
excited with a UV light source.
When the Super Epoxy was excited with the 410 nm LED, a
greenish uorescence light is clearly observable from the glue.
With a ber optic spectrometer, the uorescence spectrum of
the Super Epoxy was recorded. As shown in Fig. 3, the Super
Epoxy emits uorescence from near UV to around 680 nm with
peak wavelength at 505 nm.
There are many epoxy glue products available fromcommer-
cial sources. It is expected that the optical property of different
product is different. The optical property of several epoxy glue
products purchased from department stores and Thorlabs Inc.
have also been investigated. The epoxy glue purchased from
Thorlabs Inc. for gluing an optical ber to an optical ber con-
nector does not show uorescence when excited with a 410 nm
LED. An epoxy glue product from Henkel Consumer Adhen-
Fig. 3. The spectrum of light signal picked up by one of the two optical bers
glued inside the sensor head. The rst intensive peak at 410 nm is the LED
light coupled into the optical ber. The second peak at around 505 nm is the
uorescence signal picked up by the optical ber.
sives Inc. also does not show uorescence when excited with
a UV LED. Another epoxy glue product from Super Epoxy
was found not uorescing when excited with a 410 nm LED,
but uorescing when excited with a 375 nm LED. Although the
uorescence property of different epoxy glue product varies,
it is possible in further work to control the uorescence prop-
erty of an epoxy glue product through adding a uorescing PAH
compound, such as uorathene which has high uorescence ef-
ciency, in trace quantity to design more sensitive ber optic
temperature sensors.
3.2. The uorescence intensity from the Super Epoxy
membrane of the ber optic sensor as a temperature
indicator
Fluorescence emission is a spontaneous emission process. If
a pulsed light source is used to excite a uorescence system,
the uorescence intensity decays with time after the excitation
following the equation [22]:
I = I
0
e
t/
(1)
In this equation, I is the uorescence intensity at time t. I
0
is
the uorescence intensity at t =0, which is the time just after the
excitation pulse. is the uorescence lifetime. The spontaneous
emission is normally a fast decay process, and the value of
is from nanosecond to microsecond level for most uorescing
agents [22]. However, there are some uorophores which have
uorescence lifetime in millisecond level. These uorophores
618 S. Tao, A. Jayaprakash / Sensors and Actuators B 119 (2006) 615620
are frequentlyusedindesigninguorescence lifetime basedtem-
perature sensors because a longer lifetime can help in improving
the resolution of temperature measurement [1317].
In the continuous illumination mode, which was used in this
work, a continuous light source, such as a mercury lamp or a
LED, is used to continuously excite the uorescing molecules.
The uorescence intensity was monitored with an integrating
time much longer than the uorescence lifetime, . Therefore,
the observed uorescence intensity can be considered as an inte-
gration of instant uorescence intensity (I) with time from t =0
to innity. This gives the continuously monitored uorescence
intensity as:
I
F
= I
0
(2)
This equation indicates that the observed uorescence inten-
sity in the continuous illumination mode is proportional to the
uorescence lifetime, . Therefore, the relationship of the inte-
grated uorescence intensity, which is the sensing signal of the
ber optic sensor of this work, with temperature is similar to
that of the uorescence lifetime with temperature.
The effect of temperature onuorescence lifetime is complex.
As discussed in Section 1, an excited uorescence molecule
can relax back to its ground state either through a radiation
process, the uorescence emission process, or through a non-
radiation collision process. Temperature decides the frequency
of the collision. An increase in temperature increases the col-
lision frequency, which results in fast decay of uorescence
intensity and a shorter uorescence lifetime. In addition, tem-
perature also decides the population distribution of molecules
collidingwiththe exciteduorescence molecules, whichdecides
if the collision will cause a non-radiation decay of an excited
uorescence molecule. Similarly, temperature also affects the
population distribution of uorescence molecules, which can
change uorescence intensity and shift the peak wavelength of
uorescence spectrum.
In most of the reported temperature sensors using uores-
cence lifetime as temperature indicator, the relationship of the
uorescence lifetime with temperature cannot be described by
a simple model [1419]. The uorescence lifetime is usually
insensitive to temperature at low temperature region because
collision frequency is low in this temperature region, and the
spontaneous emission dominates the relaxation process. At a
higher temperature, the uorescence lifetime decreases signi-
cantly because the relaxation of part of the excited molecules is
caused by collisions. At this higher temperature region, the u-
orescence lifetime normally decreases logarithmically with the
increase of temperature [1419]. At further higher temperature,
the collision induced relaxation is so fast that most of the excited
molecules are relaxed through non-radiation process, and it is
difcult to detect the uorescence signal.
The applicable temperature region for each uorescence sys-
tem is different [1419]. It depends on the uorophore, the
matrix in which the uorophore is impregnated and the energy
levels related to the uorescence emission process. For the Super
Epoxy glue used in this work, it is sensitive to temperature in
the tested range from 25 to around 100

C as shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. The uorescence spectra of the Super Epoxy membrane of the temper-
ature sensor at different temperature. (A) Spectra obtained while heating the
sensor head from room temperature to 102

C. (B) Spectra obtained while cool-

ing the sensor head from 102

C to room temperature.
Although not investigated, this sensor could also response to
temperature beyond the tested temperature region. With the
increase of temperature, the uorescence intensity of the optical
ber sensor decreased. When the temperature of the sensor head
was cooled back to room temperature from a high temperature,
the uorescence signal of the sensor increased and came back to
its original intensity. The relationship of uorescence intensity
at peak wavelength (505 nm) of the Super Epoxy glue with tem-
perature was obtained by plotting data from Fig. 4. The resulted
calibration curves shown in Fig. 5(A) indicate that in the tested
temperature range, a logarithm calibration curve can be used for
temperature measurement. A linear calibration curve for mea-
suring temperature using the ber optic sensor of this work can
be obtained by using the attenuation of the uorescence signal
in dB as a sensing signal. Fig. 5(B) shows the linear calibration
curves using data from Fig. 5(A). In these two calibration lines
the dB signal is dened as:
dB = 10 log

I
25

C
F
I
F

(3)
where I
25

C
F
is the uorescence intensity of the sensor at 25

C
and I
F
is the uorescence intensity at a measured temperature.
S. Tao, A. Jayaprakash / Sensors and Actuators B 119 (2006) 615620 619
Fig. 5. Calibration curves of the ber optic sensor for measuring temperature.
(A) Calibration curves using uorescence intensity as a sensing signal. (B) Cal-
ibration curves using the attenuation of uorescence signal in dB as the sensing
signal. The triangle spot/dash lines are the calibration curves obtained while
heating the sensor head from room temperature (25

C) to 102

C. The square
spot/solid lines are the calibration curves obtained while cooling the sensor
head from 102

C to room temperature (25

C). The calibration curves obtained

from the heating process agree very well with the calibration curves obtained
from cooling process. This indicates that the sensor of this work is completely
reversible.
In Fig. 5, there are two calibration curves for each of the
calibration methods. One of the calibration curves uses the data
obtained in the process of heating the sample gas fromroomtem-
perature to a high temperature (102

C). The second calibration

curve uses data fromthe process of cooling the sensor head from
102

C to room temperature. In both of the calibration methods,

the calibration curves obtained from the heating process agree
very well with the calibration curves obtained from the cooling
process. This indicates that the ber optic temperature sensor of
this work is completely reversible.
3.3. Time response, reversibility, response time and
stability of the ber optic temperature sensor
The time response of the ber optic sensor for monitoring
temperature of the gas sample was recorded by time-scanning
the sensing signal in dB at peak wavelength (505 nm) while
changing the temperature of gas sample owing through the
testing T cell step-by-step. The obtained result is shown in
Fig. 6. Time response of the ber optic sensor for monitoring the temperature of
a gas sample. In the test, the sensing signal in dBat peak wavelength (505 nm) of
the sensor was monitored while the temperature of the gas sample was changed
step-by-step.
Fig. 6. This result also illustrates the reversibility of the Super
Epoxy glue based temperature sensor. The response time of this
ber optic temperature sensor is at least comparable to that of
the small thermocouple, which is less than 10 s in a owing
gas system according to the data shown in Omegas website
[23]. When the gas sample is heated from a low temperature
to a higher temperature, the ber optic sensor responded faster
than the thermocouple. In the cooling process, the thermocou-
ple responded faster than the ber optic sensor (Fig. 6). The
resolution of this sensor for measuring temperature was esti-
mated from the noise level of the sensing signal in dB (Fig. 6)
and the calibration curve (Fig. 5(B)). Since the uorescence sig-
nal decreases with the increase of temperature, it is expected
that the resolution of the sensor is better at low temperature
than that at higher temperature. In the tested temperature region
(25100

C), the standard variation () of uorescence signal

in dB was calculated from the time response test result shown
in Fig. 6 to be 0.00765 at 25

C and 0.0667 at 100

C. The res-
olution (based on three times of standard deviation of sensing
signal, 3) was calculated to be 0.22

C at 25

C and 2

C at
100

C.
The lifetime of a temperature sensor using uorescence agent
as a temperature indicator is always a concern when a organic
molecule is used as a temperature indicator. The sensor of this
work uses PAHs impurity in the Super Epoxy glue as a temper-
ature indicator. The PAHs are a group of organic compounds
with high stability and low vapor pressure. In addition, the
intensity of light from the LED used in this work is very low
compared with pulsed lasers, which are normally used in uores-
cence lifetime based temperature sensors. There is no problem
of photon-induced decomposition of the uorescence agent in
this sensor. Based on these properties, it is expected that the
temperature sensor of this work have a long lifetime. In fact,
the sensor probe of this work has been used for more than 6
620 S. Tao, A. Jayaprakash / Sensors and Actuators B 119 (2006) 615620
month to obtain the experimental results, and no deterioration
of uorescence signal has been observed.
4. Conclusions
A simple structured ber optic temperature sensor has been
developed. A low cost epoxy glue available from department
stores has been used as the temperature indicator of this sen-
sor. A simple LED was used as an excitation light source and
the uorescence intensity of the glue coated on the tips of two
optical bers was monitored as a sensing signal. Compared with
uorescence lifetime measurement based temperature sensors,
which requires pulsed light source (usually a pulsed laser), fast
response electronics for microsecond level signal detection and
processing, the sensor of this work is much simple in structure
and cheaper. Although an optical ber compatible spectrometer
was used in this work to monitor the uorescence signal. This
instrument can be replaced with a silicon photodiode and a band
pass lter. Therefore, it is expected that a low cost temperature
sensor can be build up based on the research result reported in
this paper. The sensor developed in this work uses an epoxy
glue product without any modication as a temperature indi-
cator. This technique can be further improved by adding trace
uorescing agent to an epoxy glue product, which will make
any epoxy glue product useful as a temperature indicator. In
addition, epoxy glue products are used in many industrial pro-
cesses. The technique developed in this work makes it possible
in the future to develop sensing techniques for monitoring the
industrial processes.
Acknowledgement
This work was partially supported by U.S. Department of
Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory through Coop-
erative Agreement number: DEFC2604NT42230.
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Biographies
Shiquan Tao received his MS degree in chemistry in
1986 from China University of Geosciences and Dr Sc
degree in chemistry in 1996 from Hiroshima Univer-
sity. He worked two years as a postdoctorial research
associate in the Department of Modern Applied Physics
at Thsinghua University, Beijing. He is presently an
associate research professor at the Diagnostic Instru-
mentation and Analysis Laboratory at Mississippi State
University. His current research interests include ber
optic sensor, analytical spectroscopy, material science.
Ashwini Jayaprakash received her BS degree in Electrical Engineering from
Bangalore Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India. She joined the ber optic
sensor group in DIAL as a research assistant in 2005 and is working toward her
PhD degree in Engineering Physics at Mississippi State University.