Network-Reconfigured Thermoelectric Flexible Sensor for Ultrafast Steady-State Temperature Perception

Ultrafast and stable steady-state temperature perception is critically important for emerging applications such as electronic skin and intelligent human-machine interfaces, yet it remains a big challenge for flexible temperature sensors due to the difficulty in rapidly establishing and maintaining stable thermal gradients. Here, we propose a conductive/thermoelectric network reconfiguration strategy that enables both rapid formation of stable temperature differentials in flexible thermoelectric sensors. By in situ welding preassembled single-walled carbon nanotube frameworks with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) on a porous melamine foam scaffold, an ion-free and continuous thermoelectric network has been constructed, substantially optimizing thermal conduction and stabilizing carrier migration pathways. The resulting sensor exhibits an ultrafast first-order response time of 58.6 ms and reaches steady state within 430 ms, even under a large temperature difference of 71.7 K, while maintaining highly stable output with negligible signal decay over prolonged operation. Moreover, the reconfigured network enables decoupled and simultaneous temperature-pressure sensing, eliminating the response-speed mismatch in dual-modal tactile systems. Benefiting from the ultrafast and stable temperature readout, the sensor achieves accurate respiratory monitoring and reliable thermal feature recognition, demonstrating strong potential for high-performance multimodal tactile sensing and intelligent health monitoring.