Pd films on soft substrates: a visual,high-contrast and low-cost optical hydrogen sensor

• 来源期刊: 光：科学与应用（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2019,（1）
• 页码范围: 63-72
• 页数: 10页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

For the rapid development of the hydrogen economy,a reliable and low-cost hydrogen sensor appears to be extremely important.Here,we first show that a palladium film deposited on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) can obtain an exceedingly high-reflectance contrast of 25.78 over the entire visible band upon exposure to 4 vol％ hydrogen gas (H2) mixed with nitrogen gas.This high-reflectance contrast results from the surface deformation induced by the volume inflation after exposure to H2,leading to the transition of the near-specular surface to a diffusing surface.In addition,a change in brightness is readable by naked eye upon exposure to H2 with various concentrations from 0.6 to 1 vol％ under the illumination of a fluorescent tube.Furthermore,this sensor possesses an excellent recyclability and quick response time of a few seconds.Compared with Pd nanostructure-based hydrogen sensors,this visual,high-contrast and low-cost sensor is of great potential for practical hydrogen sensing.