Detecting humidity have been remained a continuing concern within some important areas such as structural health, food processing, industrial as well as agricultural products. In this study, a novel humidity optical sensor is introduced based on the thermionic emission of tungsten filament using the fluorescent lamp set-up. Estimated blue compliant using a charged coupling device camera in optical image of the tungsten filament was confirmed as an appropriate detection system for relative humidity (RH) sensing. The fabricated optical sensor has wide linear range (2.0–98% RH), improved detection limit (< 5.0% RH), acceptable saturated limit (> 99.0% RH), improved percentage of relative standard deviation (4.18%, n = 2), adequate hysteresis (< 4.0% RH) and a shorter rise time (< 5.0 s), respectively. The mechanism behind this detection system is based on the interaction between H2O and tungsten filament during formation of W$${\mathrm{O}}_{3}$$ O 3 .x $${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$$ H 2 O (x = 1–2) in terms of some spectroscopic obtained evidences as well as Fourier transform infrared and X-ray diffraction spectrometries.

Detecting humidity is a continuing concern within important area such as structural health, food processing, industrial as well agricultural products. In this study, a novel humidity optical sensor is introduced based on the thermionic emission of tungsten filament of a fluorescent lamp. Estimated blue compliant using a charged coupling device camera (CCD) in optical image of the tungsten filament is considered as appropriate detection system for relative humidity (RH) sensing. . The fabricated optical sensor has acceptable linear range (2.0- 98 % RH), improved detection limit (<5.0 % RH), acceptable saturated limit (> 99.0 % RH), improved percentage of relative standard deviation (4.18%, n=2), adequate hysteresis (<4.0 % RH) and a shorter rise time (<5.0 s), respectively. The mechanism behind this detection system was based on the interaction between H2O and tungsten filament during formation of WO3.x H2O (x = 1-2) based on the patented X-ray diffraction analysis.