Welcome to Professor Christoph Langhammer and Lars Bannenberg´s Tandem webinar. Hydrogen: clean & renewable energy carrier, with water as the only emission. But it is highly flammable when mixed with air. Very efficient and effective sensors are needed
. November 5th, 2022.
Program:
- Moderator: Leif Asp, Co-Director Chalmers Area of Advance Materials Science
- Metallic nanoalloys for next generation optical hydrogen sensors, Christoph Langhammer, Professor, Chemical Physics, Chalmers University of Technology,
- Lars Bannenberg, Assistant Professor, Storage of Electrochemical Energy (SEE) group, Reactor institute Delft.
Abstract
Hydrogen is anticipated to play a key role in the transition to a sustainable economy and is a key ingredient in a variety of industrial processes.
For its safe handling, the detection of hydrogen gas in a fast, reliable, and accurate manner is crucial. Here, metal hydride based optical hydrogen sensors provide an attractive option for a wide range of conditions and have an intrinsic safety benefit since they do not require the presence of electrical leads near the sensing area due to their remote readout by means of light.
Mechanistically, such sensors rely on a distinct change of the optical properties of metals and metal alloys upon sorption of hydrogen into interstitial lattice positions, in response varying hydrogen concentration in the environment of the sensor.
In this tandem webinar, we will first discuss how nanostructured Pd-based alloys can be used as optical signal transducers in ultrafast hysteresis-free plasmonic hydrogen sensors, with detection limits down to the parts-per-billion range, and how concepts like polymer encapsulation enable sensor operation in chemically challenging environments [1,2]. In the second part of the seminar, we introduce a new family of optical hydrogen sensor materials based on tantalum-alloy thin films, which enable hysteresis-free optical hydrogen sensors with linear response to hydrogen gas across 7 orders of magnitude in concentration and with sub second response time [3].
References:
[1] Nugroho FAA, Darmadi I, Cusinato L, Susarrey-Arce A, Schreuders H, Bannenberg LJ, et al. Metal–polymer hybrid nanomaterials for plasmonic ultrafast hydrogen detection. Nature Materials 2019, 18(5): 489-495.
[2] Darmadi I, Nugroho FAA, Langhammer C. High-Performance Nanostructured Palladium-Based Hydrogen Sensors—Current Limitations and Strategies for Their Mitigation. ACS Sensors 2020 5(11): 3306-3327.
[3] Bannenberg LJ, Schreuders H, Dam B. Tantalum‐Palladium: Hysteresis‐Free Optical Hydrogen Sensor Over 7 Orders of Magnitude in Pressure with Sub‐Second Response. Advanced Functional Materials, 2021, 31(16): 2010483.