In Situ Growth of Dopamine on QCM for Humidity Detection

Polydopamine (PDA) films were successfully prepared on quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) by in-situ growth method, and the obtained QCM sensor was used for humidity detection. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to study the chemical composition and microstructure of the in-situ grown PDA sensitive films. The experimental results showed that the PDA-QCM humidity sensor with 2 h polymerization growth times (2-PDA-QCM) owned high sensitivity (20.77 Hz/% RH), good selectivity, short response/recovery time (5 s/11 s) and acceptable long-term stability. In addition, the energy loss of the sensors fabricated under different conditions was investigated by impedance analysis. Based on all the test results, it is concluded that the combination of in-situ growth method and QCM can produce a room temperature humidity sensor with excellent performance.