A scientist at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, has developed a device for sensing hydrogen gas leaks. Though, he has developed this for India's space agency, ISRO, it has applications wherever there could be a hydrogen leak.
Such as in fuel cells.
Prof S Venugopal, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, IISc, uses nano palladium for his sensors. In the nanoscale, palladium particles absorb hydrogen gas to form palladium hydride, which causes them to swell up, says an article in IISc's in-house magazine, Kernel.
This increase in volume makes the nanoparticles forge new electrical connectios with neighboring particles, resulting in a decrease in resistance. The decrease in resistance in turn increases current, which can be detected, measured.
Though a device has been developed in the labs, it is still work-in-progress. Professor Venugopal is currently optimising these sensors so that they work at room temperature. He is also working on processes to manufacture these sensors on large scale.
The article says: A nanomaterial is any substance that has at least one dimension in the nanoscale – which is a thousand times smaller than the microscopic scale and just about one billionth of a metre. S Venugopal, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, explains why the application of such materials is game-changing: “For gas-sensing applications, the use of metallic nanomaterials is mainly driven by their large surface area. Whenever you want to sense a gas, the molecules of the vapour need to interact with the solid or liquid phase of the sensor, and the extent of the interaction is determined by the interfacial area. As nanoparticles give us a very large interfacial area, they are ideal candidates for gas-sensing.”
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