Capacitive humidity sensors based on Ni/SiNWs nanocomposites

In this paper, Ni/SiNWs nanocomposites, constructed by wet chemical etching silicon nanowires (SiNWs) coated with electroless plating nickel, were prepared and studied for the detection of humidity. The Ni/SiNWs nanocomposites were annealed at different temperatures under argon atmosphere to optimize the sensitive properties and characterized by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to obtain the information on the structural and morphological properties. The capacitive humidity sensing characteristics have been investigated with the Ni/SiNWs nanocomposites as the sensitive material. It is concluded that the humidity sensor based on as-synthesized nanocomposites exhibited high sensitivity and fast response time due to its unique large surface-to-volume ratio and electrical properties. The results demonstrated that the Ni/SiNWs nanocomposites are the potential sensing material for high performance humidity sensors.