Seeing Hydrogen in Colors: Low‐Cost and Highly Sensitive Eye Readable Hydrogen Detectors

• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201303065
• Publication Date: 2013-12-16T09:36:52Z
• Authors: Peter Ngene; Tsveta Radeva; Martin Slaman; Ruud J. Westerwaal; Herman Schreuders; Bernard Dam
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

There is a great interest in the development of reliable and low‐cost hydrogen sensors for applications in the hydrogen economy, industrial processes, space application, detection of environmental pollution, and biomedical applications. Here, a new type of optical detector that indicates the presence of hydrogen in concentration range 5 ppm to 0.1 vol% H2 merely by a reversible and tunable color change is reported. The device takes advantage of the reversible change in optical properties of a Pd‐capped Y thin film upon exposure to H2, while the color is tuned using the interference of light reflected between the Y and Pd layers. In this way, an eye‐readable optical sensor that circumvents the need for electronics and external digital readouts is created. Using surface modifications, the performance of the H2 detector in humid and oxygen rich environment is greatly improved. Therefore, the device has the potential to be used for chemical and also biochemical/biomedical H2 sensing applications such as breathe hydrogen tests.