Carbon Nanocoil-Based Fast-Response and Flexible Humidity Sensor for Multifunctional Applications

Carbon nanocoils (CNCs) are employed to fabricate fast, high-resolution, and reversible humidity sensor based on a flexible liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate. The humidity sensor displays fast-response (1.9 s) and recovery time (1.5 s), a broad relative humidity (RH) detection range (4–95%), linearity, repeatability, and stability. The rapid response and recovery are considered to benefit from the hydrophobic effect of the LCP substrate and high purity of the CNCs, which give rise to weak physical adsorption. Meanwhile, the high sensitivity results from both the unique helical structure of CNCs and the microporous structure of the LCP substrate. The distinctive structure-related properties enable the sensor to reliably perceive an extremely small RH variation of 0.8%, which is too small to be detected by most humidity sensors reported previously. These features allow the sensor to monitor a variety of important human activities, such as respiration, speaking, blowing, and noncontact fingertip sensation, accurately. Furthermore, different human physical conditions can be distinguished by recognizing the respiration response patterns. In addition, the long-term operation and mechanical bending do not adversely affect the sensing performance.