Jarulertwathana N, Mohd-Noor S, Hyun JK. Mesoporous Solid and Yolk-Shell Titania Microspheres as Touchless Colorimetric Sensors with High Responsivity and Ultrashort Response Times.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021;
13:44786-44796. [PMID:
34510887 DOI:
10.1021/acsami.1c12514]
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Abstract
Touchless user interfaces offer an attractive pathway toward hygienic, remote, and interactive control over devices. Exploiting the humidity generated from fingers or human speech is a viable avenue for realizing such technology. Herein, titania microspheres including solid and yolk-shell structures with varying microstructural characteristics were demonstrated as high-performance, ultrafast, and stable optical humidity sensors aimed for touchless control. When water molecules enter the microporous network of the microspheres, the effective refractive index of the microsphere increases, causing a detectable change in the light scattering behavior. The microstructural properties of the microspheres, namely, the pore characteristics, crystallinity, and particle size, were examined in relation to the humidity-sensing performance, establishing optimum structural conditions for realizing humidity-responsive wavelength shifts above 100 nm, near full-scale relative humidity (RH) responsivity, ultrashort response times below 30 ms, and prolonged lifetimes. These optimized microspheres were used to demonstrate a colorimetric touchless sensor that responds to humidity from a finger and a microcontroller-based detector that translates the moisture pattern from human speech to electrical signals in real time. These results provide practical strategies for enabling humidity-based touchless user interfaces.
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