Abstract

Currently used humidity sensors have a large size which seriously hinders their applications in many special fields. Therefore, a facile way for fabricating miniaturized humidity sensors is desired. In this work a high-performance, nanofiber bundle sensor (NfBS) was fabricated through immersing nylon66 (PA66)/multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) nanofiber bundles into a polyvinyl alcohol solution. In the PA66/MWCNTs nanofiber bundles the MWCNTs were absorbed on the surfaces of the PA66 nanofibers. The NfBS exhibited a wide range of 11–85% relative humidity (RH) sensitivity with a fast response-recovery time as well as small hysteresis and good repeatability, but had an extremely small size (about 0.1 mm in diameter and 2 mm in length) due to the unique advantages of nanofiber bundles. In addition, the NfBS showed good performance in monitoring human breath. The results in this study provide a promising opportunity and a good method for manufacturing mini-humidity sensors with smaller sizes for electronic products.

摘要

当前使用的湿度传感器具有大尺寸，这严重阻碍了其在许多特殊领域中的应用。因此，需要一种用于制造小型化湿度传感器的简便方法。在这项工作中，通过将尼龙66（PA66）/多壁碳纳米管（MWCNTs）纳米纤维束浸入聚乙烯醇溶液中，制成了高性能的纳米纤维束传感器（NfBS）。在PA66 / MWCNTs纳米纤维束中，MWCNT被PA66纳米纤维的表面吸收。NfBS表现出11-85％的相对湿度（RH）灵敏度范围，具有快速的响应恢复时间，小的滞后和良好的重复性，但尺寸却非常小（直径约0.1毫米，长度约2毫米） ）由于纳米纤维束的独特优势。此外，NfBS在监测人的呼吸方面显示出良好的性能。这项研究的结果为制造用于电子产品的较小尺寸的微型湿度传感器提供了广阔的机遇和良好的方法。