An Ultralight Self-Powered Fire Alarm e-Textile Based on Conductive Aerogel Fiber with Repeatable Temperature Monitoring Performance Used in Firefighting Clothing

Abstract

Firefighting protective clothing is an essential equipment that can protect firefighters from burn injuries during the firefighting process. However, it is still a challenge to detect the damage of firefighting protective clothing at an early stage when firefighters are exposed to excessively high temperature in fire cases. Herein, an ultralight self-powered fire alarm electronic textile (SFA e-textile) based on conductive aerogel fiber that comprises calcium alginate (CA), Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs), and silver nanowires (Ag NWs) was developed, which achieved ultrasensitive temperature monitoring and energy harvesting in firefighting clothing. The resulting SFA e-textile was integrated into firefighting protective clothing to realize wide-range temperature sensing at 100–400 °C and repeatable fire warning capability, which could timely transmit an alarm signal to the wearer before the firefighting protective clothing malfunctioned in extreme fire environments. In addition, a self-powered fire self-rescue location system was further established based on the SFA e-textile that can help rescuers search and rescue trapped firefighters in fire cases. The power in the self-powered fire location system was offered by an SFA e-textile-based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). This work provided a useful design strategy for the preparation of ultralight wearable temperature-monitoring SFA e-textile used in firefighting protective clothing.

Recent Advances on Early-Stage Fire-Warning Systems: Mechanism, Performance, and Perspective

“…Many early fire-warning studies based on GO have been reported. Likewise, semiconductor materials that possess the special reversible thermally induced conductivity capability can implement the insulator-to-conductor conversion, owning to the charge carrier jump under high-temperature conditions [38,54]. This performance of semiconductor materials exploits an advantage in distinctive recyclable early warning systems.…”

“…Moreover, some studies on the basis of sulfides and conjugated polymers have been reported. Recently, thermoelectric (TE) materials [55] and triboelectric nano-generators (TENGs) materials [54] are gradually gaining increasing interest, due to their ability to create electrical signals under different conditions, such as the presence of a temperature. The second core is the warning transmission section.…”

Manufacturing Technics for Fabric/Fiber-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators: From Yarns to Micro-Nanofibers

“…However, due to the electrostatic shielding, the overall electric output of the single-electrode TENG is only half of the dual-electrodes mode. However, the advantage of single-electrode TENG affords it a wide range of application prospects in movement monitoring and energy collection of water droplets, intelligent sensing, human-computer interaction and other fields [ 39 , 40 ].…”

Chitosan–Fe(III) Complexes via Green Preparation toward Flame Retardant and High-Mechanical-Strength Epoxy Composites

“…Yu et al prepared fire-preventing triple-network hydrogels with poly­( N -isopropylacrylamide)/sodium alginate/poly­(vinyl alcohol) and used them to improve the flame retardancy and antibacterial properties of cotton fabrics . Yu and co-workers also used conductive aerogel fibers containing calcium alginate, Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles, and silver nanowires to prepare ultralight self-powered fire alarm e-textiles . These studies lead us to believe that enhancing the flame retardancy of polymer materials by introducing metal elements is an effective strategy.…”

“…37 Yu and co-workers also used conductive aerogel fibers containing calcium alginate, Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles, and silver nanowires to prepare ultralight self-powered fire alarm etextiles. 38 These studies lead us to believe that enhancing the flame retardancy of polymer materials by introducing metal elements is an effective strategy. However, to our knowledge, the effect of chitosan−metal complexes on the properties of epoxy thermoset materials has not been reported.…”