The best way to extinguish forest fires is to stifle hidden dangers at the early stage. So a research team at Michigan State University thought of equipping the forest with sensors that can detect factors related to carbon monoxide levels and high temperatures. It should be pointed out that although most of the previous sensors were based on solar panels, the school’s new scheme utilizes the energy generated by the movement of trees.
(From: Michigan State University)
The problem with solar panels is that they require regular maintenance, otherwise they are easily blocked by lush foliage.
However, Michigan's "Multilayer Cylindrical Friction Nano-Generator" (MC-TENG) scheme uses the charge accumulated in the material after contact separation (similar to the static charge generated by the comb behind the comb head).
The structure contains cylindrical sleeves made of two different materials nested in each other, and then anchored on the branch.
When the tree branches are swayed back and forth by the wind, the two layers of material will frictionally generate charges and store them in a miniature supercapacitor based on carbon nanotubes.
If you need to increase the output power, you can also use multiple layers of nesting. Tests have shown that even a short, but frequent 3-minute gust of wind is sufficient to maintain the long-term operation of carbon monoxide and temperature sensors.
Dr. Changyong Cao, who led the research, said that in the future they will develop an official version that is weatherproof. In addition to detecting fires, alarms can also be transmitted to nearby fire stations.
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