Hydrogen Sensor
Hydrogen is a clean and efficient energy source that can replace fossil fuels. However, it is a scarce resource and can be highly toxic in some applications, so we need to find ways to make hydrogen production more sustainable. One way is to use sensors to monitor the presence of hydrogen in power transformers, which can alert operators to potential fault conditions.
Hydrogen sensor can be classified according to their functional principle: catalytic, electrochemical, thermal conductivity, resistive, and optical. Catalytic-type sensors are fast, inexpensive, and safe; they can also be cross-sensitive to other gases such as oxygen. Electrochemical-type sensors are comparatively slow, and they may require an external signal processor to achieve real-time measurement. Resistance-type sensors are relatively expensive, but they have high sensitivity and stability. In terms of response time, semiconductor-type sensors are the fastest, while grating, interferometric, and fiber-optic-type sensors take up to 1 min to respond to changes in hydrogen concentration.
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In order to improve the performance of the hydrogen sensor, innovative materials are used, and the selection of the material plays a critical role in the sensor’s sensitivity, measurement range, operating temperature, and lifetime. For example, the TGS2615-E00 hydrogen sensor uses a tin dioxide (SnO2) semiconductor that has low conductivity in clean air but a much higher one when it is exposed to hydrogen gas. This change in conductivity is converted into a digital signal by an integrated circuit.
In addition, the evanescent wave type hydrogen sensor uses an optical fiber structure with a sputtered film to detect the concentration of hydrogen in a sample gas. Its optical path consists of two single-mode fibers that are stripped of a small section of their cladding and coated with different material films at the stripped location.
