Advances in Three‐Dimensional Temperature Sensing: From Materials to Applications

Temperature sensing has broad applications in everyday life and serves as a crucial tool for ensuring safety, efficiency, and sustainable development across various industries. Recently, 3D temperature sensing has become increasingly vital in modern society due to the boosted demand for comprehensive thermal information in various applications. This field has attracted global efforts in developing temperature-sensitive materials, spatial positioning technologies, and new mechanisms of heat transfer to improve temperature resolution and spatial resolution in various systems. This review summarizes representative research progress of thermal sensing materials and systems in 3D temperature sensing. The systems include optical-based systems (X-ray computed tomography, luminescence thermometry, optical tomography, Raman spectroscopy, infrared thermography, photoacoustic thermometry) and non-optical-based systems (thermocouple, scanning thermal microscopy, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic particle imaging). Emphases are placed on introducing the thermal sensing materials, the mechanism of temperature sensing in 3D, and discussing the feasibility of different applications. Artificial intelligence-enhanced 3D temperature sensing is also summarized. Perspectives on current challenges and future research directions are discussed at the end. It is anticipated that this review will stimulate further in-depth research in materials and systems for 3D temperature sensing and help accelerate the growth of this emerging field.