Influence of metal electrodes on the response of humidity sensors coated with mesoporous silica

Interesting effects of different metal electrodes on the behaviour of mesoporous based humidity sensors have been observed and studied by chemical characterization and electric measurements. The devices were prepared on passivated silicon slices utilizing an interdigitated structure as contacts. For comparison, the response of a device implemented on an alumina substrate has been reported. A block copolymer Pluronic F-127 has been used as the organic template and has been partially removed from the films by thermal calcination. A thin film mesoporous membrane has been deposited by dip-coating on the substrates in a sol-gel solution containing non-ionic block copolymers. Silica mesostructured films have been produced using an evaporation induced self-assembling process. The films were calcined at 150 degrees C to obtain the best performances in terms of stability, hysteresis and reproducibility of the response. The performance of the sensor has been found to be dependent on the film preparation method, the used electrodes and the substrate when exposed to different contents of relative humidity. Electrical characterization was performed under vacuum and dark conditions to investigate the properties of the materials in the absence of interfering chemicals, while the sensory properties were obtained in a controlled environment.