Detection of gases and gas mixtures by correlation spectroscopy

Abstract

The reliable detection and monitoring of gases and gas mixtures is known to play a crucial role in many real-world environmental and industrial applications. It is of considerable importance to utilise techniques that are not susceptible to poisoning, are specific to a target gas in a mixture, are unaffected by contaminants, and can be adapted for in-process monitoring. Ever-more stringent requirements in this field dictate a need for ongoing research in this area.
As many common gases exhibit their fundamental optical absorption in the infra-red and visible regions, novel optical absorption methods for the detection of gases and gas mixtures have application in a variety of real-world situations. Of these, correlation spectroscopy is an established non-dispersive technique that is attractive in offering appreciable sensitivity and discrimination for gas detection, with the potential for real-time measurement of different gas species within a mixture using a single sensing instrument.
We present new results for the detection of O2, CO, and CO2 gases using a method of real-time correlation spectroscopy involving the modulation of the absorption spectrum of a reference gas sample relative to that of the gas to be measured. We believe it is the first time O2 has been sensed in this manner and the use of low-cost sources and detectors suggests attractive commercial potential for this device.

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