New Delhi, Oct 4 (IANS): Researchers from the Centre for Nano and Soft matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru have developed a prototype of a road safety sensor that can be implanted at high-risk turning points where accidents are frequent.

A new polymer nanocomposite that comes with pressure sensing and energy harvesting properties was used to develop the prototype.

"The prototype may be implanted in the movable ramp and secured to the road just 100 metres before acute and fatal turning points," the researchers said.

This can alert any vehicle approaching from the opposite side, as they will get to see a signal on a screen. The team developed the prototype on the principle of piezoelectric effect so it can generate energy that can be stored. The energy generated by the novel polymer nanocomposite – made of transition metal dichalcogenide -- can be further used to power electronic gadgets.

The scientists synthesised vanadium disulphide (VS2) with a very high surface charge which has the capacity of improving the piezoelectric characteristics of polymers. Polymer nanocomposite films were prepared by integrating these nanoparticles at various concentrations into a well-known piezoelectric polymer, poly (vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF).

Further, the team investigated how the surface charge of nanoparticles will affect the piezoelectric properties of polymer nanocomposite. The team conducted a laboratory-scale demonstration of a road safety sensor where a smart door was established, with the prototype as a pressure sensor.

"This study demonstrates that PVDF-VS2 nanocomposites will provide significant value to flexible, long-term energy generating and pressure sensing applications,” said the team in the paper, recently published in the Journal of Material Chemistry A.

This study is part of an ongoing project “Materials for self-powered energy generating and pressure sensing devices” funded by the Department of Science and Technology under the INSPIRE faculty fellowship programme. Scientists have been trying to develop new materials for self-powered energy-generating and pressure-sensing devices. The sensors -- flexible, portable, long-lasting, wearable and energy harvesting -- can play an essential part in today's artificial intelligence era. Polymers and nanoparticles also serve critical roles in today's flexible electronic systems, the researchers said.