Copper-oxide Nanowires based Humidity Sensor

This paper presents investigated results of copper-oxide nanowires used as a humidity sensor. Copper-oxide nanowires films were grown over cross-comb type gold electrodes on a SiO2 substrate using thermal annealing technique, and its humidity sensitive characteristics were investigated through resistance across the gold electrodes. These copper-oxide nanowires films revealed high sensitivity and long-term stability with fast response time. It was found that resistance across gold electrodes of the fabricated sensor decreases with increase in humidity almost linearly on a logarithmic scale. It appears that copper-oxide nanowires can be used as low-cost humidity sensor with high output reliability and reproduction rate. The observations were carried out at room temperature (RT) and relative humidity (RH) in the range of 6% to 97%.