A mid-infrared carbon dioxide(CO_2) sensor is presented for the application in greenhouse environment. An integrated multi-pass gas chamber and a dual-channel differential detection method are adopted to decrease response time and suppress environmental influence, respectively. An optical module is developed using a cost-effective wideband mid-infrared light source, a dual-channel pyre electrical detector and a spherical mirror, and the moisture-proof function is specially designed for enabling the application of this sensor in greenhouse with high humidity. Experiments are carried out to evaluate the sensing performance on CO_2 concentration. According to the experimental results, the limit of detection(Lo D) is about 3×10^(-5) with an absorption length of 30 cm. The relative detection error is less than 5% within the measurement range of 3×10^(-5)—5×10^(-3). Based on 10 h long-term stability measurement on 5×10^(-4) and 2×10^(-3) standard CO_2 samples, the maximum fluctuations are 1.08% and 3.6%, respectively. By using a 2.4 GHz wireless network communication system for remote monitoring and data recording, a field measurement of this sensor in a greenhouse is conducted, and good performance is proven in such circumstance.
Based on wide-band infrared(IR) light source and dual-channel pyroelectric detector with detection channel of 4.66 μm and reference channel of 3.95 μm,a differential mid-infrared(MIR) carbon monoxide(CO) detector is designed and implemented.In order to reduce the detection limit and improve the detection sensitivity,an open spherical mirror chamber is designed and fabricated according to the divergence angle of the light source.The CO detection system is established using the welded and debugged detection circuits,a series of CO gases with different concentrations are prepared,and gas concentration calibration experiment is carried out.Experimental results indicate that after the amplifying circuit,the signal-to-noise ratios(SNRs) of the two channels are 17.58 dB and 18.46 dB,respectively,and the detection error of this system is less than 9% in 0%-4% measuring range.The detection sensitivity in the low concentration range is approximately 0.05%.6 h measurement on the 0 ppm sample gas shows that the fluctuation range is about ±0.02%,and the measurement standard deviation is about 0.89%.
