Highly sensitive and transparent flexible temperature sensor based on nematic liquid crystals. Issue 3 (19th February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wu, Keming; Sun, JingJing; Gao, Lin; Xing, Hongyu; Cai, Minglei; Zhao, Tongzhou; Yang, Changyong; Ye, Wenjiang; Kong, Xiangming
• Is Part Of: Liquid crystals. Volume 49:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 372
• Page End: 379
• Publication Date: 2022-02-19
• Subjects: Liquid crystal temperature sensor -- flexible -- relaxation time -- thermal effect -- electronic skin; Liquid crystals -- Periodicals; 548.905
• DOI: 10.1080/02678292.2021.1970834
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0267-8292

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this paper, a highly sensitive and transparent flexible temperature sensor fabricated from the polyethylene terephthalate flexible substrate and the nematic liquid crystal (1M0921900-000) is proposed, which simultaneously has low power consumption. Using the relaxation time ( τ = RC ) as an intrinsic variable to characterise temperature, a better linear fitting with temperature can be obtained at low voltage, high precision and more stable temperature monitoring can be achieved. The maximum sensitivity is −4.05%/°C at 0.1 V and 200 Hz. The transmittance of the sensor can reach 62.36–81.13% in the visible light range. Compared with the rigid liquid crystal temperature sensor, the rise time and the decay time of the sensor are reduced by 97.104% and 90.313%, respectively. In addition, it also has good stability, recovery, and durability, which shows potential applicability to electronic skin, prostheses, robots, and biomedical by accurately monitoring the change of external temperature. Graphical abstract: uf0001