Optical CO2 sensor with the combination of colorimetric change of α-naphtholphthalein and internal reference fluorescent porphyrin dye

A new optical CO2 sensor based on the overlay of the CO2 induced absorbance change of pH indicator dye α-naphtholphthalein with the fluorescence of tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) was developed. The observed luminescence intensity from TPP at 655 nm increased with increasing the CO2 concentration. The ratio I100/I0 values of the sensing films consisting of α-naphtholphthalein in ethyl cellulose layer and TPP in polystyrene layer, where I0 and I100 represent the detected luminescence intensities from a layer exposed to 100% nitrogen and 100% CO2, respectively, that the sensitivity of the sensor, are more than 53.9. The response and recovery times of the sensing films consisting of α-naphtholphthalein in ethyl cellulose layer and TPP in polystyrene layer were less than 5 s for switching from nitrogen to CO2, and for switching from CO2 to nitrogen. The signal changes were fully reversible and no hysterisis was observed during the measurements. The highly sensitive optical CO2 sensor based on fluorescence intensity changes of TPP due to the absorption change of α-naphtholphthalein with CO2 was achieved.