MECHANISM FOR THE BEHAVIOR OF HYDROACTIVE MATERIALS USED IN HUMIDITY SENSORS

The theory of operation of humidity sensors has not been widely discus sed in the literature. In particular, no convincing explanation has be en given as to why they respond to relative humidity (RH) rather than to an absolute measure of humidity, such as vapor pressure or mixing r atio, over a wide temperature range. A simple mechanism based on the a dhesion of surface water to polarized solids is presented that explain s many of the properties of these sensors.