Abstract
Temperature sensors are ubiquitous in every field of engineering application since temperature control is vital in operating, testing and monitoring various equipment systems. Herein, we introduce a facile and rapid laser digital patterning (LDP) process to fabricate low-cost, Ni-based flexible resistance temperature detectors (RTDs). Ni-based RTDs are directly generated on a thin flexible polyimide substrate (thickness: 50 µm) by laser-induced reductive sintering of a solution-processed nonstoichiometric nickel oxide (NiOx) nanoparticle thin film under ambient conditions. The shape of RTDs can be easily adjusted by controlling computer-aided design (CAD) data without using the physical patterning mask while the sensitivity (temperature coefficient of resistance (α) ~ 3.52 × 10−3 °C−1) of the sensors can be maintained regardless of shape and size of the sensor electrodes. The flexible Ni-based RTDs can operate over a wide temperature range up to 200 °C with excellent repeatability. Additionally, the Ni-based RTDs respond quickly to the temperature change and can operate in corrosive environments including water and seawater. Moreover, the Ni-based RTDs show a superior mechanical and electrical stability with a negligible resistance change up to a radius of curvature of 1.75 mm. Finally, a tape-pull test demonstrates the robust adhesion of Ni-based RTDs on the substrate.
Highlights
Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) are extensively adopted as temperature sensors in every field of industrial, consumer, automotive, and medical electronics applications because temperature control and monitoring are vital
Image and the selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern shown in Figure 2b and inset, respectively, demonstrate that nickel oxide (NiOx) NPs have a cubic crystalline structure with the distance of 0.24 nm between two successive bright fringes which corresponds to the (111)
Ultrasmall NiOx NPs were synthesized by a scalable chemical cost, Ni-based flexible RTDs
Summary
Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) are extensively adopted as temperature sensors in every field of industrial, consumer, automotive, and medical electronics applications because temperature control and monitoring are vital. The need for customizable sensors is increasing due to the emergence of wearable electronics, artificial skins, health monitoring kits, and soft robotics [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] that require more complicated designs and seamless integration between components To meet these requirements, a new fabrication process to fabricate lightweight and flexible RTDs should be developed, which enables direct deposition of sensor electrodes onto heat-sensitive polymer substrates as well as altering of sensor design in a simple way
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