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R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E
Advanced Science Letters
Vol. 19, 858861, 2013
System for Controlling the Moisture of the
Soil Using Humidity Sensors from a
Polyvinylideneuoride Fiber Mats
Carlos Omar Gonzlez-Morn, Gabriel A. Zamora Prez, and Ernesto Suaste-Gmez

CINVESTAV-IPN, Departamento de Ingeniera Elctrica, Seccin Bioelectrnica,

Avenida Instituto Politecnico Nacional, 2508 Mxico D.F. C.P. 072360, Mxico
A new low-cost polymer pressure sensor has been developed. A piezoelectric polyvinylideneuoride (PVDF)
ber mats is used in this sensor as the sensing element. The design of the sensor and the manufacturing
are described in detail. The properties of the sensor have been investigated experimentally. PVDF lms have
shown excellent characteristics applied as a soil moisture sensor, this results makes possible to apply PVDF
lms as control sensors for many applications for bioreactors, assisted ventilation machines or even industrial
applications or in this case as a detector of soil moisture.
Keywords: Piezoelectric, Polymer, Humidity Sensor, Durable.
1. INTRODUCTION
Soil moisture is an important component in the atmospheric
water cycle, both on a small agricultural scale and in large-
scale modelling of land/atmosphere interaction. Vegetation and
crops always depend more on the moisture available at root level
than on precipitation occurrence. Water budgeting for irrigation
planning, as well as the actual scheduling of irrigation action,
requires local soil moisture information. Knowledge of the degree
of soil wetness helps to forecast the risk of ash oods, or the
occurrence of fog. Nevertheless, soil moisture has been seldom
observed routinely at meteorological stations.
Soil water content is an expression of the mass or volume of
water in the soil, while the soil water potential is an expression
of the soil water energy status. The relation between content and
potential is not universal and depends on the characteristics of
the local soil, such as soil density and soil texture.
Soil water content on the basis of mass is expressed in the
gravimetric soil moisture content, 0
g
, dened by:
0
g
=M
water
,M
soil
(1)
where M
water
is the mass of the water in the soil sample and M
soil
is the mass of dry soil that is contained in the sample. Values of
0
g
in meteorology are usually expressed in per cent.
Because precipitation, evapotranspiration and solute transport
variables are commonly expressed in terms of ux, volumetric
expressions for water content are often more useful.

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

There are four operational alternatives for the determination
of soil water content. First, there is classic gravimetric moisture
determination, which is a simple direct method. Second, there is
lysimetry, a non-destructive variant of gravimetric measurement.
1
A container lled with soil is weighed either occasionally or con-
tinuously to indicate changes in total mass in the container, which
may in part or totally be due to changes in soil moisture.
2
Third,
water content may be determined indirectly by various radiologi-
cal techniques, such as neutron scattering and gamma absorption.
3
Fourth, water content can be derived from the dielectric properties
of soil, for example, by using time domain reectometry.
4
Our alternative for the determination of soil water content is
using the changes in the dielectric constant from capacitance
that can be calculated if the geometry of the conductors and the
dielectric properties of the insulator between the conductors are
known. For example, the capacitance of a parallel-plate capacitor
constructed of two parallel plates both of area A separated by a
distance J is approximately equal to the following:
C =
aA
J
(2)
where C is the capacitance; A is the area of overlap of the two
plates; a is the dielectric constant of the material between the
plates (PVDF mats); and J is the separation between the plates.
The dielectric used in our capacitor was PVDF mats that was
made from nano bers. The electrospinning of thin polymer
bers has been the subject of many investigations.
59
The past
decade has brought renewed interest, new observations, and
improved models. In the electrospinning process, electrical forces
form bers
10
from polymers. Jet paths with characteristic shapes
858 Adv. Sci. Lett. Vol. 19, No. 3, 2013 1936-6612/2013/19/858/004 doi:10.1166/asl.2013.4869
Delivered by Publishing Technology to: Peter Derycz
IP: 216.185.156.28 On: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:13:51
Copyright American Scientific Publishers
R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E Adv. Sci. Lett. 19, 858861, 2013
are observed repeatedly in the electrospinning of polymer uid
into bers. Electrospun bers and electrospinning processes have
many potential applications including ltration,
11
biomedical
application,
12
fuel cells,
13
solar sails
14
and composites.
15
The electric force causes the jet to emerge from a Taylor
cone.
16
The charged jet of PVDF solution elongates and moves
toward the collector in a straight line for some distance, and then
it begins to bend and develop a spiral path. The repulsive force
between charges carried by the jet causes the jet to elongate and
become thinner. The elongation and thinning of the charged jet
continue until solidication take place. The formation of beaded
bers is also widely reported. Solution viscosity, net charge den-
sity and surface tension affected formation of beaded bers. Less
viscous solution, lower charge density and higher surface tension
favored formation of beaded bers.
17
This humidity sensor consists of a ferroelectric ber mats
made of PVDF, which is used as a moisture soil-sensing element,
of a PVDF housing, and of the electronic circuit to control water
quantity in soil. It was shown that it is possible to produce a low
cost humidity sensor from PVDF, which can be used to control
of plants growing.
The objective of our current work is to develop, to investi-
gate the properties of the humidity sensor made of PVDF for
controlling soil moisture.
2. DESIGN
The sensor is made nearly completely from the chemically inert
polymer polyvinylideneuoride (PVDF). The polymeric bers to
make PVDF membranes were electrospun using a laboratory-
made apparatus, composed of DC power supply 025 kV,
a syringe (volume of 3 cm
3
, hypodermic needle (0.8 40 mm)
green), and a collector screen (cooper plate) that sustained the
substrates (10 cm15 cm). The precursor solutions were pre-
pared using 10 PVDF pellets of 0.06 gr each, dissolved in 2.4 gr
of solvent (N,N dimethylformamide-DMF) in order to obtain
concentration of 20%. The solution was heated (110

C) during
1.5 hours before deposition. The distance between tip and collec-
tor plate ranged from 5 to 15 cm. The samples were subjected to
head treatment for 24 hours at 100

C to change the crystallinity
of the polymer. The thickness and pore size of PVDF mem-
branes were controlled by the electrospinning time. The PVDF
membrane prepared by electrospinning presents a phase p.
18
The
membrane has a thickness of 90100 jm and an elliptical shape
whose major axis is 9 cm and minor axis is 7.5 cm as shown in
Figure 1, these bers have diameters between 50 nm and 700 nm
as shown in Figure 2.
For our application of the humidity sensor, a sample of 0.5 cm
2
was extracted from the membrane described above, to be posi-
tioned between the plates of our sensor to have a sensing area of
4 mm
2
as shown in Figure 3.
After this the plates were sink 5 centimeters in a pot with
soil, it was water every week with 100 ml and measures of the
capacitance were made daily during several weeks, this was made
with a LCR meter at a 10 KHz frequency, the diagram of the
experiment is shown in Figure 4.
After obtaining a repeatable response from the humidity sen-
sor, an automated system for recording the value of the capaci-
tance during the time and to water the pot was made.
In order to measure the capacitance given by the sensor,
a LM555 oscillator was applied. Using this device a change in
Fig. 1. PVDF membranes for humidity sensor.
Fig. 2. Micrograph of PVDF ber mats.
the capacitance affects in a direct way to an output frequency,
thus this frequency can be more easily measured using a micro-
controller, in this case a Microchips PIC 16f877 was applied.
In Figure 5 shows how an application of the soil moisture sen-
sor based on a PVDF ber mat was made, using the LM555 man-
ufacturers datasheet, there is told that the oscillation frequency
is given by Figure 6.
] =
1
T
=
1.44
(R
o
+2R
l
)C
(3)
Where R
o
=R
l
=10 KD and C =PVDF mat.
Fig. 3. PVDF ber mat into plates.
859
Delivered by Publishing Technology to: Peter Derycz
IP: 216.185.156.28 On: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:13:51
Copyright American Scientific Publishers
R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E Adv. Sci. Lett. 19, 858861, 2013
Fig. 4. Experimental design.
Conversion from
capacitance changes to
frequency variations.
Frequency
measurement and
data storage.
Automated
irrigation system.
Fig. 5. Procedure steps for the PVDF application system.
The output frequency is now measured as its before explained;
the ow diagram of the microcontroller is shown in Figure 7.
The oscillation frequency output from LM555 is now an input
at a Microchips PIC Microcontroller, where it is measured every
30 minutes and stored in the EEPROM memory. Microchips PIC
16f877 has a 256 Byte EEPROM memory. When the value of
frequency of oscillation was higher than 240 KHz, the microcon-
troller activates an electrovalve which was previously calibrated
and it irrigates 100 ml of water, after that it closes and itll work
Fig. 6. LM555 connection diagram and oscillation frequency.
no
Measure frequency
incoming from LM555.
Display capacitance
and frequency.
Store frequency at
EEPROM memory
Is frequency
higher than 240
KHz?
Open valve, water the
plant and close it.
yes
Fig. 7. Microcontrollers application ow diagram.
Humidity sensor
Electrovalve
Control
Fig. 8. Experimental design of the automated water pot based on a PVDF
mat soil moisture sensor.
again until it is activated by the frequency threshold previously
described.
The circuit was design built and implemented, for the water
irrigation of the pot an electrovalve was used, then the experi-
mental design is shown at Figure 8.
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
After the recording of the measures along a month, theres a trend
in the resulting capacitance of the PVDF mat and it is shown in
Figure 9.
860
Delivered by Publishing Technology to: Peter Derycz
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Copyright American Scientific Publishers
R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E Adv. Sci. Lett. 19, 858861, 2013
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27
C
a
p
a
c
i
t
a
n
c
e

(
p
F
)
Time (days)
Fig. 9. Measurement results after a month.
4. CONCLUSIONS
The electrospinning is useful technique to make ultrane ber
mat. This mat allows the construction of many sensor for several
eld of industry. The main contribution of this work was the con-
struction of a cheaper humidity sensor made of polymers for low
temperature up to 80

C and a small system to control moisture
soil on plant. This sensor had a very well performance during
experiments. The results show that this system can help on small
agricultural scale and in a large-scale vegetation and crops. Also
this system can be used to transmit information about moisture
soil such as telemetry system.
Acknowledgments: This work was supported in part by
Conacyt under Grant no. 151894. We gratefully acknowledge the
SEM micrograph technical support by the Unidad de Micro-
scopa Electrnica (Lourdes Rojas) from Centro de investi-
gacin y de Estudios Avanzados del IPNMxico.
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Received: 4 May 2012. Accepted: 28 May 2012.
861