Humidity sensing by carbon nanocones.

Carbon nano-structures, mainly nanotubes, have been explored in the past as sensing devices. In this report we have considered cones and discs (CNCs) subjected to acid treatment, dry oxidation and high temperature annealing, to study the modifications induced as they are used as sensing elements of varying relative humidity (RH). The relative humidity was varied in cycles of 30 min between 36% and 75%. Not strangely, the acid treated films displayed a much larger variation in resistance for the same difference in RH (16%). In the as-grown material, very small variations were detected among cycles under similar conditions. The changes induced in the sensors structures by the different preparation procedures were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman reflexion. These results were used to model their behaviour as RH sensors.