Aerosol Jet Printing of Synthesized Ag/Ag Nanowires Hybrid Inks for Highly Sensitive, Wide-Range Conformal Temperature Sensing

Temperature sensors are widely used in daily life and industry. Developing low-cost, scalable, high-sensitivity conformal temperature sensors with a broad detection range is highly desirable. In this study, we prepared a hybrid functional ink composed of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and silver nanowires (Ag NWs) via physically mixing for aerosol jet printing (AJP). The resulting Ag NPs/Ag NWs-0.5% ink exhibited a fine printing resolution of 10 µm and excellent conductivity up to 1.95 × 10⁷ S/m. After 1000 bending cycles, the resistance increased by only 2.22%, which is 3.6 times better than that of pure Ag NPs ink. The sintering of the hybrid ink promoted densification of printed traces, enhancing the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) to 2.71 × 10⁻³/°C at 30 °C, enabling precise monitoring across a broad temperature range of 0–240 °C. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations revealed Ag nanomaterial growth and densification mechanisms during sintering. High-quality conformal temperature sensors were also successfully fabricated on curved structures and applied for accurate temperature monitoring during the battery discharging process of new energy vehicles. These findings underscore the significant potential of emerging AJP technology in the fabrication of high-performance conformal sensing electronic devices.