Issue 42, 2018

Wearable transparent thermal sensors and heaters based on metal-plated fibers and nanowires

Abstract

Electrospun metal-plated nanofibers and supersonically sprayed nanowires were used to fabricate hybrid films exhibiting a superior low sheet resistance of 0.18 Ω sq−1, a transparency of 91.1%, and a figure-of-merit of 2.315 Ω−1. The films are suitable to serve as thermal sensors and heaters. Such hybrid transparent conducting films are highly flexible and thus wearable. They can be used as body-temperature monitors and heaters. The employed hybrid approach improved the sheet resistance diminishing it to a minimum, while maintaining transparency. In addition, the low sheet resistance of the films facilitates their powering with a low-voltage battery and thus, portability. The thermal sensing and heating capabilities were demonstrated for such films with various sheet resistances and degrees of transparency. The temperature sensing was achieved by the resistance change of the film; the resistance value was converted back to temperature. The sensing performance increased with the improvement in the sheet resistance. The temperature coefficient of resistivity was TCR = 0.0783 K−1. The uniform distribution of the metal-plated nanofibers and nanowires resulted in a uniform Joule heating contributing to an efficient convection heat transfer from the heaters to the surrounding, demonstrated by an improved convective heat transfer coefficient.

Graphical abstract: Wearable transparent thermal sensors and heaters based on metal-plated fibers and nanowires

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Jun 2018
Accepted
13 Sep 2018
First published
18 Oct 2018

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 19825-19834

Wearable transparent thermal sensors and heaters based on metal-plated fibers and nanowires

H. S. Jo, H. Kwon, T. Kim, C. Park, S. An, A. L. Yarin and S. S. Yoon, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 19825 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR04810J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements