An Optical Fiber-Based Spectrometer for Measurement of Fluorescence Lifetimes

doi:10.1006/mchj.1994.1098

Microchemical Journal

Volume 50, Issue 3, December 1994, Pages 337-350

https://doi.org/10.1006/mchj.1994.1098 Get rights and content

Abstract

An instrument is described which measures fluorescence intensity and lifetime properties using a single optical fiber for the development of fiber optic chemical sensors. The instrument utilizes a fast-pulse nitrogen laser for excitation and a digital storage oscilloscope to provide time-resolved fluorescence decay curves. The time-resolved measurements permitted the separation of most of the scattered excitation radiation from the sample signal and allowed for analysis of samples exposed to ordinary room lighting. A method for determination of lifetimes from the time-resolved decays was developed based on the time-correlated single-photon counting method. The new method used reference fluorophore solutions to determine the instrument response function, including the influence of the optical fiber, and multiple decays were averaged to improve signal-to-noise and to provide statistical weighting for the analysis. The accuracy of the lifetime analysis was demonstrated by comparison of results for Stern-Volmer quenching of quinine sulfate by chloride ion (slope = 0.115 ± 0.001, int. = 1.04 ± 0.04, r² = 0.9992) with a literature study on the same system (slope = 0.118 ± 0.002, int. = 1.06 ± 0.05, r² = 0.9986). Measurement of the lifetime of pyrene in ethanol gave 17.8 ± 0.9 ns, while the value for coumarin was 3.82 ± 0.45 ns. When mixed together, two lifetimes with values of 17.43 ± 0.73 and 3.68 ± 1.30 ns were determined.

References (0)

Cited by (13)

A microfiber temperature sensor based on fluorescence lifetime
2018, Optics Communications
We demonstrate micro/nanofiber temperature sensors based on micro/nano particles fluorescence lifetime. Dependence of the fluorescence intensity, branching ratio and lifetime on temperature are investigated from 30°to 210°. Compared with the intensity-based micro sensors, the lifetime-based micro sensors perform better in terms of accuracy, stability, and response speed. Precision of the proposed temperature sensor is obtained as high as 2°in the temperature range of 30°to 210°. This lifetime-based sensing technology won‘t be affected by external deformation of the sensors, proving it is a temperature selective sensor enabling eliminating interference of surrounding environment and background noise. Experiments and simulations show that response time of the micro sensor can be 50–100 times faster than that of conventional sensors.
Application of pulsed laser methods to in situ probing of highway originated pollutants
1997, Analytica Chimica Acta
A possibility of a portable field kit for studying traffic originated pollutants based on laser induced fluorescence (LIF) or multi-photon ionization fast-conductivity (MPI-FC) has been addressed. The resulting instrumentation has been successfully tested on soil samples that were collected and classified according to their radial distance, R, from a busy highway. The sampling was done in the near-field range with R varying from 3 to 50 m. Organic material from the samples was transferred into hexane solutions by short-time shaking with pure hexane. These solutions were investigated by simple LIF and MPI-FC instruments, which can be engineered as portable units (e.g., a PC plugged-in spectrometer has been used, in which case both the signal excitation and detection were accessed by means of optical fibers). Detected traces showed a nearly $1 R$ fall-off of the LIF and MPI-FC experimental data as a function of the sample distance from the road. It is estimated that at 50 m from the road the contamination concentrations (about 90% aliphatics and 10% aromatics) are as high as 0.1 μg g⁻¹. Both proposed methods provide good sensitivity at the relevant concentration range and may be applied for fast screening of traffic contamination of soils.
Towards a homogeneous fluorescence assay for a herbicide: Characterization of the interactions of fusilade, bromomethylmethoxy coumarin derivatized fusilade, and anti-fusilade IgG antibody
1996, Analytica Chimica Acta
The hapten 2-(4-(5-trifluoromethyl-2-pyridyloxy)phenoxy)-propionic acid (fusilade), was derivatized with the fluorescent probe 4-bromomethyl-7-methoxycoumarin (BrMmC). The labelled hapten (fusilade-coumarin, F-C) was incubated with antifusilade IgG and the fluorescence spectra, intensity and time resolved fluorescence decay of the coumarin derivative were measured to study the complexation process of the hapten-antibody system. The fluorescence decay was fit to a two component decay. The magnitude and proportion of these components remained constant but a three-fold increase in intensity was observed during the complexation process. No shifts in the wavelength of the maximum emission occurred during the complexation. The mechanism of the fluorescence intensity response was studied, and it was determined that the increase in intensity observed during the direct fluorescence assay was not due to changes of mobility, polarity or viscosity in the vicinity of the probe. A full examination of fluorescence quenching processes indicated formation of non-emissive ground state complexes (dimers or higher order aggregates) at probe concentrations above 10⁻⁶M. A homogeneous competitive binding assay indicated that the system did not demonstrate competitive binding as the addition of non-fluorescent fusilade did not result in a displacement of labelled fusilade and thus a decrease in intensity. An assay involving mixing of varying amounts of unlabelled fusilade with a known concentration of F-C in the presence of anti-fusilade IgG was determined to be feasible.
A Bright and Colorful Future for G-Protein Coupled Receptor Sensors
2020, Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
On-line screening of airborne PAH contamination by simultaneous multiphoton ionization and laser induced fluorescence
2000, Instrumentation Science and Technology
Comparison of formats for the development of fiber-optic biosensors utilizing sol-gel derived materials entrapping fluorescently-labelled protein
1999, Analyst

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Regular ArticleAn Optical Fiber-Based Spectrometer for Measurement of Fluorescence Lifetimes

Abstract

Regular Article
An Optical Fiber-Based Spectrometer for Measurement of Fluorescence Lifetimes