Development of Self-Power High Sensitivity Ultraviolet (UV-C) Sensing Sensor

High Sensitivity UV rays (UV-C) Structure and mechanism [Photo provided = Prof. Jung Woong Park (Gachon University)]

Centrifugal force is a force that disperses the waterdrops on the center of a turntable. A technology manufacturing UV ray sensor at room temperature by using spin-coating method that makes thin layers was introduced.

It is expected to obtain useful data that will discover correlation between ultraviolet and building lifecycles and plant growth and for more stable outdoor activities by monitoring UV rays in real time that can cause skin cancer or cataract and accelerate aging of buildings and cars.

The National Research Foundation (Chairman Jung Hye Noh) announced that Professor Jung Woong Park (Gachon University)s team has developed a high sensitivity sensor on UV rays (UV-C).

Existing UV rays sensors made of oxide ceramics (such as ZnO TiO2 etc.) or silicon should be coated thin films through vacuum deposition process in high temperatures. Also it requires protection layers from oxidation and thermal destruction in case of exposure to the atmosphere.

In addition few of UV-C (wavelength 280-100nm) detecting sensors has been researched which is well known for involving in strong sterilization and cell destruction among UV rays.

The team used perovskite that is used to absorb light from solar cells and convert it into energy. It detects electric current which is produced when it absorbs UV rays.

The pre-existing sensors need external power to amplify due to their low sensitivity but the sensor they made is able to be ran by internal electricity caused by UV rays as a source of power without external power.

The team succeeded in coating the surface in room temperature by dropping halide perovskite solution on the board and spun it to push the liquid out using centrifugal force.

It is simply made by heating it on the hot plate in 100 degrees Celsius after spin coating in the atmosphere while the existing sensors are going through the high vacuum deposition process. Moreover it is also available to combine with wearable technology once they improve the manufacturing condition and use not only flexible but also transparent plastic plates.

They also explained that the sensitivity was improved more than 1000 times and was kept even after taking 100 times consecutive measurements compared to the existing oxide-based UV-C sensors.

Their responding speeds up to 200 times faster (46ms on light source/47ms off light source) is also one of their virtues. Furthermore it shows stability maintaining above 80% of the detection ability on UV rays even after 3 weeks.

Its per unit cell area is 400mm2 (20x20mm) the team is planning to improve their research on its performance and manufacture it in large scales.

This research was conducted as a part of Basic Research Project supported by Ministry of Science and ICT∙the National Research Foundation and GL Convergence Research Infrastructure Project supported by Gachon University and was published in the British Loyal Chemical Society’s ‘Journal of Materials Chemistry A’ on December 8.

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