Ultraflexible Glassy Semiconductor Fibers for Thermal Sensing and Positioning

Abstract

Flexible, large-area, and low-cost thermal sensing network with high spatial and temporal resolution are of profound importance in addressing the increasing needs for industrial processing, medical diagnosis, and military defense. Here, a thermoelectric fiber is fabricated by thermally co-drawing of a macroscopic preform containing semiconducting glass core and polymer cladding to deliver thermal sensor functionalities at fiber-optic length scales, flexibility, and uniformity. The resulting thermoelectric fiber sensor operates in a wide temperature range with high thermal detection sensitivity and accuracy, while offering ultra-flexibility with the 2 bending curvature radius below 2.5 mm. Additionally, a single thermoelectric fiber can either sense the spot temperature variation or locate the heat/cold spot on the fiber. As a proof-ofconcept, a two-dimensional 3×3 fiber array is woven into a textile to simultaneously detect the temperature distribution and the position of heat/cold source with the spatial resolution of millimeter. Achieving this may lead to the realization of large-area, flexible and wearable temperature sensing fabrics for wearable electronics and advanced artificial intelligence applications.

Textile‐Based Thermoelectric Generators and Their Applications

“…The zT values of prepared p‐type Sb 2 Te 3 fibers and n‐type Bi 2 Te 3 fibers were 0.24 and 0.07, respectively. Most recently, thermal drawing technique was developed to produce inorganic TE fibers such as Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5 Te 3 , Bi 2 Se 3 , (Te 85 Se 15 ) 45 As 30 Cu 25 , In 4 Se 3 , and Bi 2 Te 3 fibers . The process required a cladding material with glass transition temperature slightly higher than the melting point of TE materials.…”

“…As aforementioned in Table , flexible (Te 85 Se 15 ) 45 As 30 Cu 25 wire was prepared by thermal drawing . The wire displayed not only high TE power factor but also excellent thermal sensing performance, as illustrated in Figure a–f.…”

“…i) Finger heating (33 °C) and ingot cooling (22 °C) on the TE wire array. Corresponding j) thermal images recorded by IR camera and k) reconstructed thermal maps using the data of TE wire . Reproduced with permission from Ref .…”

Is LiI a Potential Dopant Candidate to Enhance the Thermoelectric Performance in Sb-Free GeTe Systems? A Prelusive Study

“…These transport properties are highly interlinked and there is a greater challenge in decoupling the electrical and thermal transport parameters [4]. To take on these challenges, an array of novel concepts and approaches have been developed and implemented by the thermoelectric community, such as the concepts of band engineering [5,6], introducing nano-scale features [7,8] and discoveries of novel materials [9][10][11][12][13]. Among those state-of-the-art TE materials, the widely studied lead tellurides are limited by their high toxicity for any commercial application, in spite of their high zT [14][15][16][17][18].…”

A Self-Powered Flexible Thermoelectric Sensor and Its Application on the Basis of the Hollow PEDOT:PSS Fiber

“…Recently, a reported~15 micron PEDOT:PSS fiber [17] possessed higher flexibility with an electrical conductivity of 3828 S/cm, which is compatible with the value of an ultra-thin PEDOT:PSS film. Different kinds of TE fibers have emerged, and considerable attention has been given to SWCNT/PVDF composite fibers [14,16], , and glass-semiconductor fibers [21] for applications in energy harvesting, thermal sensing, and positioning. With years of development, major achievements have been obtained for flexible sensors towards promising applications in personal health [22,23], artificial intelligence systems [24][25][26], wearable motion detection [27,28], and wearable healthcare devices [29].…”