Abstract
In this study, we fabricated a highly flexible fiber-based capacitive humidity sensor using a scalable convergence fiber drawing approach. The sensor’s sensing layer is made of porous polyetherimide (PEI) with its porosity produced in situ during fiber drawing, whereas its electrodes are made of copper wires. The porosity induces capillary condensation starting at a low relative humidity (RH) level (here, 70%), resulting in a significant increase in the response of the sensor at RH levels ranging from 70% to 80%. The proposed humidity sensor shows a good sensitivity of 0.39 pF/% RH in the range of 70%–80% RH, a maximum hysteresis of 9.08% RH at 70% RH, a small temperature dependence, and a good stability over a 48 h period. This work demonstrates the first fiber-based humidity sensor fabricated using convergence fiber drawing.
Highlights
Humidity control is a common concern for many industrial applications such as automobile manufacturing [1], meteorology [2], agriculture [3], food processing [4], aerospace [5], medicine [6], and biotechnology [7]
We propose a new type of polymer-based capacitive humidity sensor produced using a scalable fiber drawing method
We introduced porosity in the PEI during the fiber drawing, which significantly increased the sensitivity of the humidity sensor in the higher-relative humidity (RH)
Summary
Humidity control is a common concern for many industrial applications such as automobile manufacturing [1], meteorology [2], agriculture [3], food processing [4], aerospace [5], medicine [6], and biotechnology [7]. The capacitive sensors are the most commonly used in the industrial and commercial fields [2] due to their high sensitivity and performance, linearity, fast response time [24,25,26], low power consumption, and good stability at higher humidity levels [12]. These sensors detect the humidity variations by changing the sensing layer dielectric when exposed to the different atmospheric humidity conditions
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