A wearable self-powered fire warning e-textile enabled by aramid nanofibers/MXene/silver nanowires aerogel fiber for fire protection used in firefighting clothing

Abstract

Firefighting clothing is an essential equipment that can provide safety personal protective from all kinds of thermal hazards and prevent burn injuries for firefighters. However, it is still a challenge to develop high fire safety firefighting clothing with an early fire alarm response before protective clothing malfunctional in extreme fire conditions. Herein, a wearable self-powered early fire warning e-textile (MAA e-textile) enabled by Ti3C2Tx MXene/silver nanowires (Ag NWs)/aramid nanofibers (ANFs) aerogel fiber was fabricated via wet spinning technique. The resulting self-powered fire warning MAA e-textile can be integrated into firefighting clothing to achieve wide-range temperature sensing at 100–400 °C based on a linear relationship between thermoelectric voltage and temperature due to thermoelectric characteristic of MXene, which could alert firefighters to evacuate timely before protective clothing was damaged. The bridging connection between Ag NWs and MXene nanosheets enable 30 wt% MAA e-textile to possess rapidly and repeatedly fire warning performance in 1.6 s when being burned. Meanwhile, because of the synergistic carbonization between MXene and ANFs, 30 wt% MAA e-textile exhibited excellent flame retardancy, whose peak heat release rate was significantly decreased by 80 % compared with ANFs aerogel fiber. Moreover, a self-powered rescue location system enabled by MAA e-textile-based triboelectric nanogenerator is further assembled to rescue trapped firefighters by providing correct escape routes. This work provided a facile approach into the fabrication and application of wearable self-powered early fire warning e-textile in firefighting clothing to ensure the operation safety of firefighters during firefighting process.