Open AccessPorous Ionic Membrane Based Flexible Humidity Sensor and its Multifunctional Applications
Author(s) -
Li Tie,
Li Lianhui,
Sun Hongwei,
Xu Yan,
Wang Xuewen,
Luo Hui,
Liu Zheng,
Zhang Ting
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.388
H-Index - 100
ISSN - 2198-3844
DOI - 10.1002/advs.201600404
Subject(s) - relative humidity , materials science , electrolyte , humidity , polyvinyl alcohol , membrane , porosity , chemical engineering , ionic bonding , conductance , pressure sensor , nanotechnology , composite material , chemistry , electrode , organic chemistry , ion , biochemistry , physics , mathematics , combinatorics , engineering , thermodynamics
A highly flexible porous ionic membrane (PIM) is fabricated from a polyvinyl alcohol/KOH polymer gel electrolyte, showing well‐defined 3D porous structure. The conductance of the PIM changes more than 70 times as the relative humidity (RH) increases from 10.89% to 81.75% with fast and reversible response at room temperature. In addition, the PIM‐based sensor is insensitive to temperature (0–95 °C) and pressure (0–6.8 kPa) change, which indicates that it can be used as highly selective flexible humidity sensor. A noncontact switch system containing PIM‐based sensor is assembled, and results show that the switch responds favorably to RH change caused by an approaching finger. Moreover, an attachable smart label using PIM‐based sensor is explored to measure the water contents of human skin, which shows a great linear relationship between the sensitivity of the sensor and the facial water contents measured by a commercial reference device.