Humidity Responsive Photonic Sensor based on a Carboxymethyl Cellulose Mechanical Actuator

Matthew Hartings; Kevin O Douglass; Claire Neice; Zeeshan Ahmed

doi:10.1016/j.snb.2018.03.065

Humidity Responsive Photonic Sensor based on a Carboxymethyl Cellulose Mechanical Actuator

Sens Actuators B Chem. 2018:265:10.1016/j.snb.2018.03.065. doi: 10.1016/j.snb.2018.03.065.

Authors

Matthew Hartings^{1

2}, Kevin O Douglass¹, Claire Neice¹, Zeeshan Ahmed¹

Affiliations

¹ Thermodynamic Metrology Group, Sensor Science Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.
² Dept. of Chemistry, American University, Washington DC 20016.

Abstract

We describe an intuitive and simple method for exploiting humidity-driven volume changes in carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to fabricate a humidity responsive actuator on a glass fiber substrate. We optimize this platform to generate a photonic-based humidity sensor where CMC coated on a fiber optic containing a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) actuates a mechanical strain in response to humidity changes. The humidity-driven mechanical deformation of the FBG results in a large linear change in Bragg resonance wavelength over the relative humidity range of 5 % to 40 %. The measurement uncertainty over this relative humidity range is ± 2 % (k = 1).

Grants and funding

9999-NIST/Intramural NIST DOC/United States