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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 17581

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Shlomi Arnon

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Guest Editor

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O Box 653 IL-84105 Beer-Sheva, Israel
Interests: wireless, satellite and optical communication; free space optics; quantum key distribution system
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We have only one Earth, and to keep it at healthy condition, continuous monitoring is required. Optical Technologies for Environmental Monitoring is a field that could contribute a lot to protecting our Earth. The aim of this Special Issue is to present different optical technologies to monitor our soil, water, and air in a diverse range of architectures, sensing mechanisms, and applications. We invite manuscripts for this forthcoming Special Issue entitled “Optical Technologies for Environmental Monitoring”, in all aspects pertinent to environmental sensors. Both reviews and original research articles are welcome. Reviews should provide an up-to-date and critical overview of state-of-the-art technologies in the following research fields applied to Optical Technologies for Environmental Monitoring:

Aerosols monitoring to detect COVID-19 virus;
Optical fiber sensors for COVID-19 screening;
Physical, mechanical, and electromagnetic sensors;
Micro plastic sensing (e.g., Raman, FTIR);
Industrial pollution monitoring;
Soil monitoring;
Water monitoring;
Lidar, Ladar remote sensing;
Satellite remote sensing;
Multiplexing and sensor networking;
Distributed sensing;
Agriculture pollution monitoring;
Interferometric and polarimetric sensors;
Sensor based on backscattering, absorption, fluorescence, Raman;
New concepts for photonic sensing.

Prof. Dr. Shlomi Arnon
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

optical monitoring and sensing
microplastic
soil monitoring
water monitoring
air monitoring

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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16 pages, 3758 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Low-Cost NDIR-Based N₂O Gas Detection Device for Agricultural Soils: Assembly, Calibration Model Validation, and Laboratory Testing

by K.M.T.S. Bandara, Kazuhito Sakai, Tamotsu Nakandakari and Kozue Yuge

Sensors 2021, 21(4), 1189; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21041189 - 8 Feb 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6832

Abstract

This research presents a low-cost, easy-to-assemble nondispersive infrared (NDIR) device for monitoring N₂O gas concentration in agricultural soils during field and laboratory experiments. The study aimed to develop a cost-effective instrument with a simple optic structure suitable for detecting a wide range of soil N₂O gas concentrations with a submerged silicone diffusion cell. A commercially available, 59 cm path-length gas cell, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based infrared emitter, pyroelectric detector, two anti-reflective (AR) coated optical windows, and one convex lens were assembled into a simple instrument with secure preciseness and responsivity. Control of the IR emitter and data recording processes was achieved through a microcontroller unit (MCU). Tests on humidity tolerance and the saturation rate of the diffusion cell were carried out to test the instrument function with the soil atmosphere. The developed calibration model was validated by repeatability tests and accuracy tests. The soil N₂O gas concentration was monitored at the laboratory level by a specific experimental setup. The coefficient of determination (R²) of the repeatability tests was more than 0.9995 with a 1–2000 ppm measurability range and no impact of air humidity on the device output. The new device achieved continuous measuring of soil N₂O gas through a submerged diffusion cell. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Technologies for Environmental Monitoring)

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30 pages, 7405 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dosimetry and Calorimetry Performance of a Scientific CMOS Camera for Environmental Monitoring

by Alexis Aguilar-Arevalo, Xavier Bertou, Carles Canet, Miguel Angel Cruz-Pérez, Alexander Deisting, Adriana Dias, Juan Carlos D’Olivo, Francisco Favela-Pérez, Estela A. Garcés, Adiv González Muñoz, Jaime Octavio Guerra-Pulido, Javier Mancera-Alejandrez, Daniel José Marín-Lámbarri, Mauricio Martinez Montero, Jocelyn Monroe, Sean Paling, Simon J. M. Peeters, Paul Scovell, Cenk Türkoğlu, Eric Vázquez-Jáuregui and Joseph Walding Show full author list Hide full author list

Sensors 2020, 20(20), 5746; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20205746 - 10 Oct 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4037

Abstract

This paper explores the prospect of CMOS devices to assay lead in drinking water, using calorimetry. Lead occurs together with traces of radioisotopes, e.g.,

^{210} Pb

, producing

γ

-emissions with energies ranging from 10

k

e V

to several 100

k

[...] Read more.

This paper explores the prospect of CMOS devices to assay lead in drinking water, using calorimetry. Lead occurs together with traces of radioisotopes, e.g.,

^{210} Pb

, producing

γ

-emissions with energies ranging from 10

k

e V

to several 100

k

e V

when they decay; this range is detectable in silicon sensors. In this paper we test a CMOS camera (Oxford Instruments Neo 5.5) for its general performance as a detector of X-rays and low energy

γ

-rays and assess its sensitivity relative to the World Health Organization upper limit on lead in drinking water. Energies from 6

k

e V

to 60

k

e V

are examined. The CMOS camera has a linear energy response over this range and its energy resolution is for the most part slightly better than 2%. The Neo sCMOS is not sensitive to X-rays with energies below

\sim 10 k e V

. The smallest detectable rate is

40 \pm 3

m

Hz

, corresponding to an incident activity on the chip of

7 \pm 4

Bq

. The estimation of the incident activity sensitivity from the detected activity relies on geometric acceptance and the measured efficiency vs. energy. We report the efficiency measurement, which is 0.08(2)% (0.0011(2)%) at

26.3

k

e V

(

59.5

k

e V

). Taking calorimetric information into account we measure a minimal detectable rate of

4 \pm 1

m

Hz

(

1.5 \pm 1

m

Hz

) for

26.3

k

e V

(

59.5

k

e V

)

γ

-rays, which corresponds to an incident activity of

1.0 \pm 6

Bq

(

57 \pm 33

Bq

). Toy Monte Carlo and Geant4 simulations agree with these results. These results show this CMOS sensor is well-suited as a

γ

- and X-ray detector with sensitivity at the few to 100 ppb level for

^{210} Pb

in a sample. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Technologies for Environmental Monitoring)

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14 pages, 3025 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Prediction of Soil Organic Carbon in a New Target Area by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Comparison of the Effects of Spiking in Different Scale Soil Spectral Libraries

by Hongyang Li, Shengyao Jia and Zichun Le

Sensors 2020, 20(16), 4357; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20164357 - 5 Aug 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2725

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is widely used to predict soil organic carbon (SOC) because it is rapid and accurate under proper calibration. However, the prediction accuracy of the calibration model may be greatly reduced if the soil characteristics of some new target areas are different from the existing soil spectral library (SSL), which greatly limits the application potential of the technology. We attempted to solve the problem by building a large-scale SSL or using the spiking method. A total of 983 soil samples were collected from Zhejiang Province, and three SSLs were built according to geographic scope, representing the provincial, municipal, and district scales. The partial least squares (PLS) algorithm was applied to establish the calibration models based on the three SSLs, and the models were used to predict the SOC of two target areas in Zhejiang Province. The results show that the prediction accuracy of each model was relatively poor regardless of the scale of the SSL (residual predictive deviation (RPD) < 2.5). Then, the Kennard-Stone (KS) algorithm was applied to select 5 or 10 spiking samples from each target area. According to different SSLs and numbers of spiking samples, different spiked models were established by the PLS. The results show that the predictive ability of each model was improved by the spiking method, and the improvement effect was inversely proportional to the scale of the SSL. The spiked models built by combining the district scale SSL and a few spiking samples achieved good prediction of the SOC of two target areas (RPD = 2.72 and 3.13). Therefore, it is possible to accurately measure the SOC of new target areas by building a small-scale SSL with a few spiking samples. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Technologies for Environmental Monitoring)

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11 pages, 3260 KiB

Open AccessLetter

An Investigation on Design and Characterization of a Highly Selective LED Optical Sensor for Copper Ions in Aqueous Solutions

by Sheng-Chun Hung, Chih-Cheng Lu and Yu-Ting Wu

Sensors 2021, 21(4), 1099; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21041099 - 5 Feb 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2835

Abstract

The optical characteristics of copper ion detection, such as the photometric absorbance of specific wavelengths, exhibit significant intensity change upon incident light into the aqueous solutions with different concentrations of metal ions due to the electron transition in the orbit. In this study, we developed a low-cost, small-size and fast-response photoelectric sensing prototype as an optic sensor for copper (Cu) ions detection by utilizing the principle of optical absorption. We quantified the change of optical absorbance from infra-red (IR) light emitting diodes (LEDs) upon different concentrations of copper ions and the transmitted optical signals were transferred to the corresponding output voltage through a phototransistor and circuit integrated in the photoelectric sensing system. The optic sensor for copper (Cu) ions demonstrated not only excellent specificity with other metal ions such as cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), iron (Fe) and chloride (Cl) ions in the same aqueous solution but also satisfactory linearity and reproducibility. The sensitivity of the preliminary sensing system for copper ions was 29 mV/ppm from 0 to 1000 ppm. In addition, significant ion-selective characteristics and anti-interference capability were also observed in the experiments by the proposed approach. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Technologies for Environmental Monitoring)

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