Analytical procedure to assess the performance characteristics of a non-spectroscopic infrared optical sensor for discrimination of chemical vapors

摘要

An optical-filter-based sensor that was designed to mimic human color vision was recently developed. This sensor uses three mid-infrared optical filters to discriminate between chemicals with similar, strongly overlapping mid-infrared absorption bands. This non-spectroscopic technique requires no spectral scanning. This paper defines the selectivity and specificity of this biomimetic sensor. Receiver operating characteristic curves are presented for each target chemical. These results demonstrate that the sensor is highly selective and can provide discrimination with no false positives for three similar target chemicals-acetone, hexane, and fuel oil-while rejecting potential interferents. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America