Sensors & Transducers (Mar 2010)
Fiber Optic Long Period Grating Based Sensor for Coconut Oil Adulteration Detection
Abstract
We report the development and demonstration of a Long-Period Grating (LPG) based optical fiber sensor for determining the adulteration of coconut oil by palm oil. The fundamental principle of detection is the sensitive dependence of the resonance peaks of LPG on the changes of the refractive index of the environmental medium around the cladding surface of the grating. Refractive index sensing with LPGs employs light coupling between core and cladding modes in the grating section. The transmittance spectra of a long period grating element immersed in different mixtures of coconut oil and palm oil were recorded. Results show that resonance wavelengths and transmission intensities varied as a function of the adulteration level of coconut oil. Detection limit of adulteration was found to be 2 % for coconut oil–palm oil binary mixture.