Tungsten Oxide Flow Sensor and its Performance Regulation

This article studies a novel tungsten oxide flow sensor based on the phenomenon of the streaming potential, which can not only meet the basic requirements of flow measurement but also has many other advantages, such as ultralow cost, low power consumption (spontaneously sensing flow), and high adaptability (flexible structure design). Four tungsten oxide sensors are prepared by different electrochemical oxidation methods and installed in a closed pump flow measurement system to carry out flow rate response experiments. The results show that the flow rate responses of four tungsten oxide have different sensitivities and similar response time, linearity, and stability. Moreover, in order to investigate the performance regulation laws of tungsten oxide sensor, the four tungsten oxide sheet electrodes are characterized by scanning electron microscopy-X-ray energy spectrometer (SEM-EDS), and it is found that the tungsten oxide sheet electrode with a deeper oxidation degree has higher sensitivity. In summary, tungsten oxide flow sensor has excellent flow rate response and easy regulation method so that it is a very promising flow sensor.