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Detection of dissolved gases in oceans is critically needed for global carbon cycle investigation. However, most in situ optical detection techniques, as far as we know, have restricted measurement efficiency due to large gas consumption. Herein, we develop a sub-mL photoacoustic gas sensor with a simple configuration. A single-mode fiber directly guides the incident laser into the photoacoustic cell without any other free-space optics. Thus, a reduced inner size of 12 mm × 6 mm × 4 mm enables the effective detection of limited dissolved gas. We employ methane (CH4) as an example to demonstrate its sensing performance. The sensor achieves a good linear response with an R-square value of 0.9989 and a minimum detection limit of 1.1 ppmv, corresponding to a normalized noise equivalent absorption coefficient of 7.75 × 10−8 W·cm−1·Hz−1/2.

SO2F2 and SOF2 are the main components from the decomposition of insulation gas SF6. Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) has been acknowledged as an accurate sensing technique. Polar material adsorption for SO2F2 and SOF2 in the photoacoustic gas cell of PAS may affect detection efficiency. In this paper, the optical gas-cell dynamic adsorptions of four different materials and the detection effects on SO2F2 and SOF2 are theoretically analyzed and experimentally demonstrated. The materials, including grade 304 stainless steel (SUS304), grade 6061 aluminum alloy (Al6061), polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDC), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), were applied inside the optical gas cell. The results show that, compared with metallic SUS304 and Al6061, plastic PVDC and PTFE would reduce the gas adsorption of SO2F2 and SOF2 by 10 to 20% and shorten the response time during gas exchange. The complete gas defusing period in the experiment was about 30 s. The maximum variations of the 90% rising time between the different adsorption materials were approximately 3 s for SO2F2 and 6 s for SOF2, while the generated photoacoustic magnitudes were identical. This paper explored the material selection for PAS-based gas sensing in practical applications.

In photoacoustic spectroscopy, the signal is inversely proportional to the resonant cell volume. Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) is an absorption spectroscopy technique that is suitable for detecting gases at low concentrations. This desirable feature has created a growing interest in miniaturizing PA cells in recent years. In this paper, a simulation of a miniaturized H-type photoacoustic cell consisting of two buffer holes and a resonator was performed in order to detect CO, NH3, NO, and CH4 pollutants. These gases are the main components of the air pollutants that are produced by the automotive industry. The linear forms of the continuity, Navier–Stokes equations, and the energy equation were solved using the finite element method in a gaseous medium. The generated pressure could be measured by a MEMS sensor. Photoacoustic spectroscopy has proven to be a sensitive method for detecting pollutant gases. The objectives of the measurements were: determining the proper position of the pressure gauge sensor; measuring the frequency response; measuring the frequency response changes at different temperatures; studying the local velocity at the resonant frequency; and calculating the quality factor. The acoustic quality coefficient, acoustic response (pressure), local velocity, frequency response, and the effect of different temperatures on the frequency response were investigated. A frequency response measurement represents the fact that different gases have different resonance frequencies, for which CO and NO gases had values of 23.131 kHz and 23.329 kHz, respectively. The difference between these gases was 200 Hz. NH3 and CH4 gases with values of 21.206 kHz and 21.106 kHz were separable with a difference of 100 Hz. In addition, CO and NO gases had a difference of 2000 Hz compared to NH3 and CH4, which indicates the characteristic fingerprint of the designed cell in the detection of different gases. Better access to high-frequency acoustic signals was the goal of the presented model in this paper.

The concentration of trace gases in the atmospheric environment is extremely low, but it has a great impact on the living environment of organisms. Photoacoustic spectroscopy has attracted extensive attention in the field of trace gas detection because of its high sensitivity, good selectivity, and fast response. As the core of a photoacoustic detection setup, the photoacoustic cell has a significant impact on detection performance. To improve detection sensitivity, a sphere-tube coupled photoacoustic cell (STPAC) was developed, which was mainly composed of a diffuse-reflective sphere and an acoustic resonance tube. Modulated light was reflected multiple times in the sphere to increase optical path, and photoacoustic (PA) signals were further amplified by the tube. Based on STPAC, a PA gas detection setup was built with a laser diode (LD) at 450 nm as the light source. The experimental results showed that the minimum detection limit (noise equivalent concentration, NEC) of NO2 was ~0.7 parts per billion (ppb). Compared with the T-type PA cell (TPAC) in which the modulated light passed through the sphere, the signal-to-noise ratio of STPAC was increased by an order of magnitude at the same concentration of the NO2 sample.

Photoacoustic (PA) spectroscopy techniques enable the detection of trace substances. However, lower threshold detection requirements are increasingly common in practical applications. Thus, we propose a systematic geometry topology optimization approach on a PA cell to enhance the intensity of its detection signal. The model of topology optimization and pressure acoustics in the finite element method was exploited to construct a PA cell and then acquire the optimal structure. In the assessment, a thermo-acoustic model was constructed to properly simulate the frequency response over the range of 0–70 kHz and the temperature field distribution. The simulation results revealed that the acoustic gain of the optimized cell was 2.7 and 1.3 times higher than conventional cells near 25 and 52 kHz, respectively. Moreover, the optimized PA cell achieved a lower threshold detection over a wide frequency range. Ultimately, this study paves a new way for designing and optimizing the geometry of multifarious high-sensitivity PA sensors.