Tutorial review—Optical chemical sensors: transduction and signal processing

Abstract

The development of optical chemical sensors is a rapidly growing technology, and it combines the advantages of optical fibres with the selectivity and specificity of chemical transduction systems. The chemical transducer is the heart of such sensors and considerable effort is being made in their development. The analyte concentrations are determined through the measurement of chemically encoded optical signals. The optical signal processing is carried out using standard components and instrumentation to produce quality and meaningful data. This paper reviews the principles of chemical transduction and the signal processing systems that are used in conjunction with optical chemical sensors.