Humidity sensor based on silver nanoparticles embedded in a polymeric coating

In this work, a new humidity sensor based on the deposition of silver nanoparticles embedded in a polymeric coating on an optical fiber core is presented. The silver nanoparticles inside the coating were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in order to get additional information about their size and shape. An increase of the Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) peak intensity is observed when the coating is built up by using the Layer-by-Layer (LbL) deposition technique. Changes in Relative Humidity from 20% to 80% are detected by a shift of the SPR wavelength.