Dynamic Monitoring of Multi-Concentrated Silica Nanoparticles Colloidal Environment with Optical Fiber Sensor

Colloids are metastable suspensions of particles dispersed in a base fluid, with high scientific and industrial importance, but the monitoring of these systems still demands expensive and large instrumentation. In this research, the measurement of concentration gradients in colloidal silica samples using an optical fiber sensor is reported. (189 nm)-silica nanoparticles were sedimented in test tubes for creating environments with different concentrations. The fiber probe was immersed in the assessed liquid, resulting in an increase in the dispersion of the reflected light intensity, which is caused by the particles Brownian motion. Therefore, the quasi-elastic light scattering phenomenon related to the diffusivity can be analyzed, providing information about the concentration gradients of the nanosystem with a straightforward, in-situ, and non-destructive approach.