Issue 7, 2018, Issue in Progress
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RSC Advances

Enhanced moisture sensing properties of a nanostructured ZnO coated capacitive sensor

Harinder Singh,a   Akshay Kumar,a   Babankumar S. Bansod,b   Tejbir Singh,c   Anup Thakur,d   Tarandip Singhe  and  Jeewan Sharma ORCID logo *a  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Nanotechnology, Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib, India
E-mail: jeewansharma29@gmail.com

b Central Scientific Instruments Organization, Chandigarh, India

c Department of Physics, Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib, India

d Department of Basic and Applied Sciences, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India

e Department of Electronics Engineering, Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib, India

Abstract

This work reports the enhancement in sensitivity of a simple and low-cost capacitive moisture sensor using a thin film of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles on electrodes. The ZnO nanoparticles are systematically characterized using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, BET surface area analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and UV-visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The average crystallite size of the ZnO nanoparticles is ∼16 nm with a surface roughness of ∼3 nm. Blue emission in the PL spectrum confirms the presence of oxygen vacancy dipoles, which are responsible for enhancing the dielectric properties of the ZnO nanoparticles. The effect of the ZnO nanoparticles on the sensitivity of a moisture sensor cell has been studied using wheat grains with a moisture content from 7% to 25%. An enhancement in sensitivity of 36.4% at 1 MHz and 97.4% at 500 Hz has been observed. A detailed sensing mechanism is proposed and the enhancement in sensing has been explained based on the interaction of ZnO with water vapor and the dielectric behavior of the nanostructured ZnO. The present results establish ZnO as a sensing material for improving the utility of moisture sensors.

Graphical abstract: Enhanced moisture sensing properties of a nanostructured ZnO coated capacitive sensor

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C7RA10917B
Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Oct 2017
Accepted
23 Dec 2017
First published
19 Jan 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2018,8, 3839-3845

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Enhanced moisture sensing properties of a nanostructured ZnO coated capacitive sensor

H. Singh, A. Kumar, B. S. Bansod, T. Singh, A. Thakur, T. Singh and J. Sharma, RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 3839 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA10917B

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