HAMILTON, CANADA — Researchers have created a motion-powered, fireproof sensor that can track movements of people who work in high-risk environments like firefighters, steelworkers and miners, according to a McMaster University press release. <br />McMasters researchers, working with partners at other colleges, have created a low-cost sensor that is about the size of a button-cell battery. <br />According to the release, the sensors can be incorporated into the sole of a boot or under the arm of a jacket, wherever motion creates a pattern of constant contact and release to generate the energy the sensor needs to function. <br />By harvesting electricity from movement, the sensor uses triboelectric, or friction-generated, charging for power.<br />The sensors can track the movement and location of a person in a burning building, a mineshaft or other hazardous locations, alerting those outside if movement stops. <br />The key material in the sensor, a new carbon aerogel nanocomposite, is fireproof and never needs charging from a power source. <br />The sensors have been successfully tested at temperatures up to 300 degrees Celsius without any loss of function. <br />The development team—from McMaster, UCLA and University of Chemistry and Technology Prague—describes the new device in a paper published in the journal Nano Energy.
