Infrared Thermal Sensor Using Electrosprayed Silver Nanowires and Ruthenium Complex

Thermometric sensors are widely used in industrial and medical applications. Temperature-dependent phosphors are progressively chosen materials in thermal sensors yet posing major constraints due to relatively low fluorescence emission. Plasmonic enhancements are sparking alternatives in strengthening light-matter interaction and energetically revamping the functionalities of phosphors with real potencies. Herein, we proposed an infrared (IR) thermal sensor using a highly temperaturesensitive phosphor. For the first time, silver nanowires (AgNWs) were employed to embed in ruthenium complex temperature sensitive paint (TSP) with a matrix of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), to build plasmonic enhanced fluorescent thermal sensor. Upon optimizing the concentration of AgNWs incorporation, the electrosprayed AgNWs@Ru-PVDF film demonstrated an increase of an order of magnitude in fluorescence intensity. Besides, the thermal sensor integrated with such film delivered a temperature sensitivity of 4.01% K<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> at room temperature and a detectivity <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">D</i>* of 7.82 × 10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7</sup> cm·Hz<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1/2</sup>/W. Compared with control group without AgNWs addition, an 18% enhancement in temperature sensitivity, 29% enhancement in <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">D</i>*, a 30% reduction in response time, and a 142% increase in fluorescence intensity were successfully obtained, which suggests its promising in thermal imaging application.