Highly sensitive porous metal oxide films for early detection of electrical fire: Surface modification and high throughput screening

In this study, an electrical fire simulator was fabricated and connected to a test platform which can take high throughput screening of materials through the method of combinatorial material science. WO3 and In2O3 were used as basis materials in the experiment and modified through the way of micro-injection in order to find the best one sensitive to electrical fire. It is found that CrCl3-modified and MgCl2-modified WO3, as well as LaOCl-modified and SmOCl-modified In2O3 show the best sensing performance. They can be used as sensitive materials for early detection of electrical fire because they have good sensitivity to the smell of PVC even if the working temperature of PVC insulated wires is lower than 200 °C. Therefore, it confirms that the early detection of electrical fire in the invisible smoke stage is feasible by using the modified WO3 or In2O3.