Abstract
Natural cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) possess outstanding properties, such as biodegradability, hydrophilicity, large specific surface areas, and are low in cost. A highly stable and sensitive humidity sensor based on a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) was prepared using CNCs as the sensing film. To investigate the impact of CNCs loading on the sensor performance, a series of humidity-sensitive performance tests, including linearity, response and recovery times, repeatability, hysteresis characteristics, selectivity, and long-term stability tests, was conducted. The experimental results indicated that the humidity sensor with CNCs loading of 2 μg (QCM-2) exhibited excellent logarithmic linearity, high sensitivity (32.35 Hz/% relative humidity (RH)), excellent reversible behavior, and long-term stability at a RH of 11–84%. The contact angle of QCM-2 was 12.5°, revealing its suitable hydrophilicity. Thus, we demonstrate that CNCs are great prospects for potential application in humidity sensors with high performance and low cost.
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Acknowledgments
We appreciate the generous financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32001267), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (Grant No. 2019J01388), Program for Innovative Research Team in Science and Technology in Fujian Province University (IRTSTFJ-31) and Open Project Program of Fujian Key Laboratory of Novel Functional Textile Fibers and Materials (Minjiang University, Grant No. FKLTFM2008).
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Chen, W., Chen, B., Lv, R. et al. Fabrication of quartz crystal microbalance humidity sensors based on super-hydrophilic cellulose nanocrystals. Cellulose 28, 3409–3421 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-03777-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-03777-y