DETERMINATION OF REFRACTIVE INDEX OF GLUCOSE SOLUTION USING LOW COST FIBER OPTIC SENSOR

Simple and low cost optical fiber sensors are found to be useful in small and large scale chemical and medical industries.  In particular, the physical properties of liquids like concentration, temperature, density and pressure can be measured using the refractive index optical fiber sensors.  Optical fiber sensors (OFS) are superior to conventional measurement techniques because of its advantages such as remote sensing, simple setup, cheap and interference free etc.,.  The present work demonstrates the measurement of refractive index of Glucose solution using a simple optical fiber sensor.  The intensity modulated OFS designed works on the principle of the change in angle of reflected light with refractive index of the medium from which light enters the fiber.  By measuring the intensity of the light received by the fiber from glucose solution of different concentrations indicates that it is possible to measure the refractive index of liquid with a simple plastic optical fiber sensor.