Fabrication of a high-sensitive wearable temperature sensor with an improved response time based on PEDOT:PSS/rGO on a flexible kapton substrate

Rapid developments in flexible and wearable electronics have opened a research field for healthcare applications. Temperature sensing with high accuracy and sensitivity, fast response and recovery time, small size, and low power consumption are essential features in health monitoring systems. Here, we present a wearable temperature sensor with a high response time and high sensitivity. We have utilized PEDOT:PSS/rGO (1:0.5wt%) as temperature-sensitive layer and Aluminum (Al) as contact electrodes embedded in a flexible Kapton substrate. The performance of the fabricated sensor is based on resistive-type temperature detection. It exhibits a linear temperature dependence of resistance in a temperature range of 30–45 °C with the correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.9904 for the line fitted to the experimental data. The mentioned temperature sensor displays a negative temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) of 3.365%/°C, which is comparable with the conventional metal temperature sensors. The response and recovery times of the presented sensor are 2 s and 7 s, respectively, over ~ 12 °C by the variation of about ~ 44.7% in resistance. The distinct feature of this sensor is a high-temperature-sensitive layer with a fast response time which makes the sensor suitable for real-time monitoring of body temperature.