High-performance temperature sensor based on silver nanowires

Detecting body temperature variation is highly crucial to monitor health conditions. Temperature sensors with good sensitivity can detect temperature through resistive changes. Among such sensors, silver nanowires (AgNWs) are one kind of important conductive fillers owing to the excellent conductivity and low cost. Here we introduce a facil strategy to construct AgNWs-based temperature sensors in terms of the effect of temperature and humidity on the resistance of AgNWs films. A linear relationship between the resistance and temperature was quantified. Moreover, the temperature sensitivity achieves ˜16 Ω/℃ over the range of 30–80 ℃, by combining polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films with AgNWs random network as the protective layer, which effectively controls the influence of humidity on the AgNWs. The integrated PDMS-AgNWs temperature sensor with a good reproducibility, opens an avenue for the potential applications of silver nanowires in other types of sensors.