Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

High performance fibers have been developed over the last fifty years for the manufacture of fire protective clothing. These fibres display high mechanical performance and are resistant to chemicals, fire, and high temperatures. However, the various conditions the materials are exposed to during their lifetime reduce their performance over time. In addition, destructive testing has shown considerable loss in performance before any sign of deterioration is visible to the naked eye. Currently, no non-destructive technique is available to assess the residual performance of the materials in service. Thus, workers at risk of heat and flame exposure have no way of knowing if their clothing is still able to protect them from the hazards associated with their tasks.* In that context, graphene is opening a new range of possibilities for the manufacture of end-of-life sensors for fabrics. The avenue selected for this project relies on conductive tracks produced by combining graphene with compounds that are sensitive to aging conditions of high performance fibers, i.e. heat, UV, and moisture. Upon reaching a certain level of exposure to one of these aging agents sufficient to cause the fire protective fabric to enter an unsafe range, the compound degrades, causing a rupture in the graphene conductive track. The measurement of the electrical conductivity of the sensor tracks on the fire protective clothing corresponding to the different aging agents would be conducted as part of the regular assessment that workers at risk of heat and flame exposure are required to do of their protective equipment.* This innovative project draws on the complementary expertise of the PI on the aging of protective materials and co-PI on the design of nanotechnology-based functional polymer materials and devices. With the support of four textile manufacturers distributed along the value chain as well as a graphene producer, it will lead to a major breakthrough in terms of safety for workers potentially exposed to heat and flame as well as to new product development opportunities for Canadian textile manufacturers. It will also provide training of HQPs in a very multidisciplinary environment.*