The fabrication and characterization of a novel co-planar humidity sensor based on organic semiconducting material, vanadyl phthalocyanine (VOPc), is presented in this paper. Here we examine the effect of different humidity conditions on the capacitive and resistive response of VOPc thin films in the Al/VOPc/Pt co-planar structure. The two asymmetric electrodes, aluminum (Al) and platinum (Pt), were deposited through the photolithography technique. Thin films of VOPc were spun-cast on the glass substrate with primarily deposited asymmetric metal electrodes, from a solution of 30 mg ml−1 in chloroform at 3000 rpm. The gap between the electrodes was 17 µm. A 100-fold increase was observed in the capacitance of the VOPc sensing material with an elevation of relative humidity level. The resistance of the sensor reduced from 2.9 GΩ to 2.1 MΩ with increasing level of humidity. The VOPc thin film has been analyzed by x-ray diffraction as well as atomic force microscopy in order to get structural and morphological information on the sample. Adequate sensing properties such as enough sensitivity, good selectivity, linearity and reasonable response and recovery times have been obtained. The humidity-dependent properties of the sensor make it a good match for its potential application in commercial hygrometers.
This study presents the fabrication and characterization of novel surface-type capacitive humidity sensors using vanadyl phthalocyanine (VOPc) as the active material. The devices, which comprise three different thicknesses, have been fabricated using the thermal evaporation technique. A thin film of VOPc is deposited on thoroughly cleaned glass substrates with pre-patterned Ag electrodes. The capacitive effect of the samples under humidity has been investigated. Comparison of the samples with different thicknesses shows that the thinnest device seems more sensitive towards humidity. The humidity dependent capacitance properties of the sensor make it beneficial for use in commercial hygrometers.
The name of the fourth author B H Majlis should be read as B Y Majlis.
An affiliation is missing from the first author, which should be:
4 Department of Electronics, Jinnah College for Women, University of Peshawar, 25120 Peshawar, Pakistan
The name of the material vanadyl phthalocyanine and its abbreviation VOPc should be read throughout the text as:
vanadyl 2,9,16,23-tetraphenoxy-29H,31H-phthalo-cyanine (VOPcPhO).
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