DEVELOPMENT OF ZrO2-TiO2 POROUS CERAMIC AS SOIL HUMIDITY SENSOR FOR APLICATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

Due to the necessity of the automation and control of processes in agriculture, as well as to the crescent interest for the environmental monitoring, efforts have been demanded in the development of more versatile, reliable sensors and sensor systems with smaller cost [1,2]. In this sense, the search of new materials, the modeling study of sensor and the development of new measurement techniques and processing of signs have been orientating the progress in this area [3,4]. In this work, the results of the characterization analyses of sensor elements of ZrO2-TiO2 porous ceramic for application as soil humidity sensor, are shown and discussed. This is a subject of great originality in world-wide terms, mainly concerning to the influence of the pores form and its size distribution on the capacity of chemical and physical interactions of water molecules with the surface of the sensor material.