Humidity sensing properties of KCl-doped ZnO nanofibers with super-rapid response and recovery

KCl-doped ZnO nanofibers are synthesized via an electrospinning method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The humidity sensing properties of these nanofibers are investigated by screen-printing them on a ceramic substrate with a pair of Ag-Pd inter-digitated electrodes. The experimental results show that the 5.7wt% KCl-doped ZnO nanofibers hold super-rapid response and recovery, high response value, good reproducibility, linearity, selectivity, and stability at 100 Hz. Especially, the response time and recovery time is only about 2 and 1s, respectively. These results demonstrate the potential application of KCl-doped ZnO nanofibers for fabricating high performance humidity sensors. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.