Intensity-based oxygen imaging with a display screen and a color camera

Easily accessible optoelectronic devices were utilized to demonstrate a simple determination method of gaseous oxygen both quantitatively and qualitatively. A liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and a color charge-coupled device (CCD) camera were employed as a light source for fluorescence excitation and a photodetector for emission measurement, respectively. Meso-scale test platforms incorporating fluidic channels and oxygen sensor films were prepared. The ruthenium-complex sensor films were excited by blue light displayed from the LCD screen to emit fluorescence responding to gaseous oxygen. The color camera was used to map the distribution of red fluorescence emission from sensor films based on single-color intensity measurements. This combination of ubiquitous LCD and color camera enables a potential capability of uniform illumination and distribution recording over a large area with variable wavelength ranges. Possible niche application areas include multiple-analyte and high-throughput analysis over a large-area fluidic network.