Flexible temperature sensor with high sensitivity ranging from liquid nitrogen temperature to 1200 °C

Abstract Flexible temperature sensors have been extensively investigated due to their prospect of wide application in various flexible electronic products. However, most of the current flexible temperature sensors only work well in a narrow temperature range, with their application at high or low temperatures still being a big challenge. This work proposes a flexible thermocouple temperature sensor based on aerogel blanket substrate, the temperature-sensitive layer of which uses the screen-printing technology to prepare indium oxide and indium tin oxide. It has good temperature sensitivity, with the test sensitivity reaching 226.7μV °C⁻¹. Most importantly, it can work in a wide temperature range, from extremely low temperatures down to liquid nitrogen temperature to high temperatures up to 1200 °C, which is difficult to be achieved by other existing flexible temperature sensors. This temperature sensor has huge application potential in biomedicine, aerospace and other fields.