New Concept in Humidity Sensing: Role of Molecular Brownian Energy and Probabilistic Mean Free Path to differentiate RH- and Trace Level Detection

A break in the traditional pore morphology approach in anodic alumina is presented here to see its niche merit over the conventional sensors for water vapor detection. The cylindrical pore structure was replaced with a normal cone for trace-level and inverse cone for RH-level detection. The normal conical pore was fabricated by sheer manipulation of the reaction rates of electrolytes, anodic polarization, rate and time; the procedure was reversed in the case of the inverse cone structure. A sensor with a normal cone geometry exhibits excellent response at the ppm level and slightly extended to low RH level with a detection range of 120 ppm-30% RH, having response and recovery times of 6 and 255 s, measured at 120 ppm. Lowering of the minimum detection limit further requires alteration of the conical geometric parameters, in tandem with the molecular dynamics of water vapor molecules within the pore. In contrast, a sensor developed from an inverse conical structure shows response only at the RH level, from 20% RH to 90% RH with response and recovery times of less than 60 s over the entire range. Limitations such as nonlinear response, large response-recovery time, and high hysteresis as observed in conventional anodic alumina-based humidity sensors have been removed. The sensor response in conical and inverse conical pore morphologies is compared with that of standard sensors having a cylindrical pore morphology, with a top pore diameter identical with that of the reported sensors. The standard sensors were found to detect in the RH range only, with response and recovery times below 20s. The sensing mechanisms in both structures have been suitably demonstrated and ratified with experimental data. Trace level detection is interpreted with the statistical probabilistic approach in the light of the kinetic theory of gases and Brownian energy. A correlation between top surface pore diameter (through which water molecules enter) and the optimized mean free path of vapor molecule is established, and its effectiveness has been demonstrated for humidity detection at a trace level. The results are encouraging, and the same concept may be tried for the detection of other gaseous stimuli, including organic vapors.