Flame retardant flexible pressure sensor textile based on T-ZnO

Firefighters cannot feel and operate objects sensitively during work due to the thick protective cloth. Here, we report a flexible pressure sensor based on T-ZnO and flame-retardant textile for fine operation during fire fight. In order to reduce the effects of residual stresses of the interface between sensor and protective clothing, cotton textile was used as substrate and the thickness of the sensor system was controlled in this work. We design 3 × 3 sensors array for complicated object operation. The thickness of the whole textile system is 1.3 mm, while the sensitive layer is 70 μm. The sensor system is composed of flame retardant textile, textile substrates, graphene electrodes and tetrapod-like zinc oxide (T-ZnO). Flame retardant textile showed excellent flame retardancy with peak heat release rate of 130.19 kW/m² and total heat release of 3.20 MJ/m², which was decrease by 37.58 % and 31.33 % compared to pure textile. The sensitivity of the sensor is 3.97 mV/N as detecting 0.2–2 N force. Moreover, the sensor shows outstanding repeatability in different frequencies and long term of pressure. Toroidal and crossed object were measured to illustrate the pressure position sensing ability. The sensor system was adhered on fire fighter's glove, the pressure of operating screwdriver and pliers on flame was sensed successfully.