Solid-State Conductivity of Sucrose and its Applications as Humidity and Temperature Sensors

Abstract: Present paper reports the applications of sucrose as humidity and temperature sensors. Pellets of sucrose and sucrose mixed with 10 % and 25 % zinc have been made under pressure 400 Kg/cm² and were exposed to humidity in a specially designed humidity chamber successively. It was found that variation in electrical conductivity of pure sucrose pellet is almost linear for 5-95 % RH. When 10% zinc was mixed with sucrose, the sensitivity increases, however, linear part of conductivity Vs % RH plot contracts, which reveals that now measurable range of humidity is small for 5-85 % RH. With 25 % zinc the linear part is minimum for 5-70 % RH and sensitivity is the highest among these three pellets. In case of temperature sensor, the sucrose with 10% zinc shows better sensitivity in low range of temperature, i.e. from 30 to 65°C than pure sucrose and with 25 % zinc, conducting nature of zinc dominates and its temperature sensing property becomes insignificant. It is observed that at room temperature conductivity changes linearly with deliberate added amount of impurity (zinc) suggesting that conductivity may be considered as a parameter for sugar quality. Characteristic activation energies have been evaluated to establish mechanism of conduction.

Keywords: Conductivity, sucrose, humidity, temperature and sensors

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