Self‐Powered Humidity Sensor Using Chitosan‐Based Plasmonic Metal–Hydrogel–Metal Filters

Abstract

Abstract A tunable Fabry–Pérot resonator is realized using metal–insulator–metal structure, in which the insulator is chitosan hydrogel. The chitosan swells in response to changes in relative humidity; this change affects transmissive structural color of the multilayer structure. This tunable resonator is utilized for a humidity sensor combined with a photovoltaic cell. The change in current through the photovoltaic cell provides rapid precise measurement of relative humidity, and the change in color of the multilayer provides an approximate, remotely‐readable estimate. The response requires no power, so the device has numerous sensing applications.