Sensing Fire At Its Early Stages
12 January 2008, 21:27
Categories: NEMS--MEMS sensors
One of the interesting applications of carbon monoxide (CO) sensors, emerging within the last few years, is the early detection of fire. The detection of fire in its earliest stages is vital for improving the safety of occupants and properties. Based on the European standard EN 54, CO has been indicated as one of the major target by-products at the earlier stages of fire for all six typical fire scenarios: open wood fire, smouldering wood fire, smouldering wick, polyurethane foam fire, n-heptane fire and alcohol fire. Consequently, the development of highly-sensitive novel CO sensors and the so-called fire-signature sensors provides an opportunity not only for earlier fire detection but also for reducing the false alarm rate.
Researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia, report that they have studied two types of nanostructures that are good at sensing CO in the early stages of a fire. The nanostructured semiconductor films, cobalt oxyhydroxide (CoOOH) and gold-doped CoOOH, showed good sensitivity to carbon monoxide in the temperature range 50–110 °C with the maximum sensitivity to CO at 80 °C. They also tested how the nanosensors responded to other gases.
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