A Printed Flexible Sensor Based Silk-Fibroin for Distinguishing the Existing States of Water: Liquid or Gaseous?

摘要

Humidity is a key environmental factor, and its accurate detection is significant in many fields. However, the drawback of reaction with both gaseous and liquid water molecules extremely limits the further applications of traditional humidity sensors. Herein, we developed a novel printed flexible humidity senor based on biocompatible silk fibroin. The unique feature of water molecular selection of silk fibroin enables the proposed sensor to distinguish the existing states of water (i.e., liquid or gaseous) in the air. A printing process of functional conductive patterns on polymeric substrate is successfully developed, which endows the device with remarkable precision and flexibility.