Textile Based Thermoelectric Temperature Sensor for Wearable Device

Abstract

Recent technological advances in wearable electronics with high performance, flexibility, stretchability, and ultra-thinness are emerging. But they still have challenges in terms of processibility, reliability, and power consumption. In this report, we present a highly stretchable textile-based thermoelectric temperature sensor fabricated using commercially available thermoelectric inks. With various combinations of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), carbon-nanotube(CNT), silver nanoparticle(AgNP) inks, we confirmed high performances of temperature-sensing capability. The optimized thermoelectric temperature sensor generates a Seebeck voltage of 1.1 mV for a temperature difference of 100˚C through a thermocouple consist of PEDOT:PSS and AgNPs inks. This textile based temperature sensor shows a high durability up to 200 cycles under 20% stretched condition. In addition, we obtained the dependence of temperature sensing characteristics with stretching directions of knitted structure textile substrate. We believe that this stretchable thermoelectric fabric to be the innovative elements in wearable device such as healthcare system, humanoid robotics, and human-machine interactive technique.