Reduced Graphene Oxide/Polyelectrolyte Multilayers for Fast Resistive Humidity Sensing

Fast humidity sensors are of interest due to their potential application in new sensing technologies such as wearable personal healthcare and environment sensing devices. However, the realization of rapid response/recovery humidity sensors remains challenging primarily due to the sluggish adsorption/desorption of water molecules, which particularly impacts the response/recovery times. Moreover, another key factor for fast humidity sensing, namely the attainment of equal response and recovery times, has often been neglected. Herein, the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of a reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/polyelectrolyte is demonstrated for application in fast humidity sensors. The resulting sensors exhibit fast response and recovery times of 0.75 and 0.85 s (corresponding to times per RH range of 0.24 and 0.27 s RH-1, respectively), providing a difference of only 0.1 s (corresponding to 0.03 s RH-1). This performance exceeds that of the majority of previously reported graphene oxide (GO)- or rGO-based humidity sensors. In addition, the polyelectrolyte deposition time is shown to be key to controlling the humidity sensing kinetics. The as-developed rapid sensing system is expected to provide useful guidance for the tailorable design of fast humidity sensors.