Carbon-based materials for humidity sensing: a short review

Humidity sensors are widespread in many industrial applications, ranging from environmental and meteorological monitoring, soil water content determination in agriculture, air conditioning systems, food quality monitoring, and medical equipment to many other fields. Thus, an accurate and reliable measurement of water content in dierent environments and materials is of paramount importance. Due to their rich surface chemistry and structure designability, carbon materials have become interesting in humidity sensing. In addition, they can be easily miniaturized and applied in flexible electronics. Therefore, this short review aims at providing a survey of recent research dealing with carbonaceous materials used as capacitive and resistive humidity sensors. This work collects some successful examples of devices based on carbon nanotubes, graphene, carbon black, carbon fibers, carbon soot, and more recently, biochar produced from agricultural wastes. The pros and cons of the dierent sensors are also discussed in the present review

Sol–gel-entrapped pH indicator for monitoring pH variations in cementitious materials:

Sensors for pH evaluation of concrete were made by a sol–gel process with alizarin yellow as pH indicator. The optical absorbance was measured with a visible spectrophotometer coupled with optical fibers. Results showed that the sensors had good reversibility, reproducibility, and fast response time

Alkali activation of waste materials: sustainability and innovation in processing traditional ceramics

Environmental issues linked both to OPC production and waste management brought researchers to find new solutionsfor the production of more eco-efficient binders. In this frame, alkali-activated materials are receiving increasing attention. They are obtained by reaction of an alkali metal source, generally sodium or potassium, with amorphous calcium-aluminosilicate precursors. More recently, also the reuse of mining wastes was investigated due to the impressive production of sludges and muds which do not have practical applications and shall be landfilled. The aim of our researches was to investigate the use of semi-crystalline/high-crystalline by-products in the production of alkali-activated materials. Thus, two different powders were used: an alumino silicate mud, composed by quartz, feldspars, biotite and dolomite; and a carbonatic one, composed of calcite and small amounts of dolomite. Both powders were alkali-activated using a solution of NaOH and Na2SiO3. Pastes were produced mixing the activating solution and the powder in different liquid/solid ratiosandinvestigatingthe use of waste glass powder as further source of amorphous silica. Samples were oven-cured for 24h at 60-80 °C and then cured in different environments (dry, humid and immersed in water) for other 27 days before testing physical and mechanical properties. Very promising results were obtained in terms of compressive strength (about 30 MPa for the aluminosilicate sludge and up to 45 MPa for the carbonatic one), showing their potential as innovative building products

Recycled Mortars with C&D Waste

Nowadays an environmental problem that cannot be underestimated is the increasing amount of waste of different nature. Certainly, an environmental friendly solution is to use waste directly or indirectly in the production of concrete or mortar, which are the most used building materials in the world. In the production of coarse recycled aggregates (RA), the fine fraction, also called recycled sand (RS), is involuntarily produced and it represents a large amount of the weight of the crushed C&D waste. Generally, the problem of fine fraction has not been much analysed until now. For this reason, in this work, an innovative mortar mix design for using recycled sand from C&D has been analysed, by partial replacement of standardized sand (SS) with recycled sand (RS) or washed recycled sand (RSW) and by using a fixed w/c ratio equal to 0.5. The main aim of this research has been to investigate if washing and sieving of recycled aggregates can improve the quality of the recycled aggregate. Analyses allowed concluding that the quality of the recycled aggregate could be improved by washing and sieving of recycled aggregates and that in any case the bending strength and the fracture energy increase or decrease simultaneously

Waste Coffee Ground Biochar: A Material for Humidity Sensors

Worldwide consumption of coffee exceeds 11 billion tons/year. Used coffee grounds end up as landfill. However, the unique structural properties of its porous surface make coffee grounds popular for the adsorption of gaseous molecules. In the present work, we demonstrate the use of coffee grounds as a potential and cheap source for biochar carbon. The produced coffee ground biochar (CGB) was investigated as a sensing material for developing humidity sensors. CGB was fully characterized by using laser granulometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the Brunnauer Emmett Teller (BET) technique in order to acquire a complete understanding of its structural and surface properties and composition. Subsequently humidity sensors were screen printed using an ink-containing CGB with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) acting as a temporary binder and ethylene glycol monobutyral ether, Emflow, as an organic vehicle so that the proper rheological characteristics were achieved. Screen-printed films were the heated at 300℃ in air. Humidity tests were performed under a flow of 1.7 L/min in the relative humidity range 0–100% at room temperature. The initial impedance of the film was 25.2 MΩ which changes to 12.3 MΩ under 98% humidity exposure. A sensor response was observed above 20 % relative humidity (RH). Both the response and recovery times were reasonably fast (less than 2 min)

Experimental Investigation on Use of Wheat Straw Ash and Bentonite in Self-Compacting Cementitious System

In this research, we evaluated the feasibility of wheat straw ash and bentonite (raw and heated at 150°C for 8 hrs) as secondary raw materials in self-compacting paste (SCP). The fresh and hardened properties of SCP formulations including water and superplasticizer demand, flow behavior, compressive and flexural strength development, water absorption, and acid attack resistance were evaluated. Moreover, porosity, microstructural, and mineralogical investigations were also carried out on SCP formulations. Test results showed that the properties of SCP formulations in fresh state depend on the morphology of secondary raw materials. For heated bentonite and wheat straw ash formulations, the 28 days of compressive and flexural strength were higher or almost similar to reference SCP formulation. Among SCP formulations, wheat straw ash formulation was found to be more effective in consuming free lime and showed significant decrease in porosity with time, which in turn improved the resistance of this SCP formulation against water absorption and acid attack. Based on the test results, it can be concluded that the successful utilization of wheat straw ash and bentonite SCP formulations will offer durable and environmental friendly option to construction industry

Preparation and characterization of a zinc oxide nanopowder supported onto inorganic clay.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles are obtained by a wet chemical method using zinc sulphate as a raw material. Doping sepiolite, micro-fibrous inorganic clay, with ZnO after precipitation under basic conditions and subsequent thermal treatment is investigated as both materials are abundant. They are used for the development of humidity and gas sensors of great environmental importance. The particle size distribution, the morphology and the composition of the powder samples are characterized by X-Ray diffraction accompanied by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy and High Resolution-Transmission Electron Microscopy techniques. The data obtained confirm the formation of zinc oxide nanoparticles of a size of 10 nm on the modified sepiolite grains