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Advanced flexible humidity sensors: structures, techniques, mechanisms and performances

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Abstract

Flexible humidity sensors are widely used in many fields, such as environmental monitoring, agricultural soil moisture content determination, food quality monitoring and healthcare services. Therefore, it is essential to measure humidity accurately and reliably in different conditions. Flexible materials have been the focusing substrates of humidity sensors because of their rich surface chemical properties and structural designability. In addition, flexible materials have superior ductility for different conditions. In this review, we have summarized several sensing mechanisms, processing techniques, sensing layers and substrates for specific humidity sensing requirements. Aadditionally, we have sorted out some cases of flexible humidity sensors based on different functional materials. We hope this paper can contribute to the development of flexible humidity sensors in the future.

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Acknowledgements

This review was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22008014), the Changzhou Young Scientific and Technological Talents Promotion Project, the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province and China Scholarship Council (CSC). This work was also supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government (MOTIE) (20215710100170) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2023R1A2C200769911).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, China

    Yuzhe Zhang, Yuxi Liu, Man Zhou & Zhongyu Li

  2. Department of Applied Bioengineering, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea

    Lifei Lin, Wang Zhang, Liwei Lin & Yuanzhe Piao

  3. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Catalytic Materials and Technology, School of Petrochemical Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, China

    Man Zhou, Liwei Lin & Zhongyu Li

  4. College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Lifei Lin

  5. Department of Neurosurgery, Movement Disorder Center, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, 03080, Republic of Korea

    Sun Ha Paek

  6. Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, 16229, Republic of Korea

    Yuanzhe Piao & Sun Ha Paek

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  1. Yuzhe Zhang
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  2. Yuxi Liu
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  3. Lifei Lin
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  4. Man Zhou
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  5. Wang Zhang
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  6. Liwei Lin
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  7. Zhongyu Li
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  8. Yuanzhe Piao
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  9. Sun Ha Paek
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Liwei Lin, Zhongyu Li or Yuanzhe Piao.

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Zhang, Y., Liu, Y., Lin, L. et al. Advanced flexible humidity sensors: structures, techniques, mechanisms and performances. Front. Mater. Sci. 17, 230662 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-023-0662-8

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