Extended Summary

pp.53-58

Development of an Electrical-Type Distributed Hydrogen Gas Sensor Using

Pt/WO3 Thin Film for Detection of Leakage Locations
Shinji Okazaki Member (Yokohama National University, sokazaki@ynu.ac.jp)
Sayaka Yamashita Non-member (Nissan motor co., ltd., sa-yamashita@mail.nissan.co.jp)
Keywords : platinum-supported tungsten trioxide, hydrogen gas sensor, electrical-type distributed sensor, leakage location detection

Hydrogen is regarded as a clean energy source since global

warming gas such as carbon dioxide is not generated through
combustion or fuel cell reaction under appropriate condition.
However, it has highly explosive nature, and therefore monitoring
of leakage from hydrogen-utilizing-equipments would be
indispensable for the safe use of hydrogen energy. Convenient
techniques for leakage point detection would be desirable,
especially for application to the inspection of these equipments in
production processes. Various types of sensors have been
intensively studied and practically used. However, most of those
sensors are spot-type (0-dimensional) which can only detect
hydrogen gas at a tiny spatial point. Thus, many sensor devices
have to be used or spatial scanning of a single device is required.
It leads to high cost and complicated operation systems. In this
paper, the structure of electrical-type 2-dimensional distributed
hydrogen sensor using platinum-supported tungsten trioxide (Pt/
WO3) as a hydrogen switch material whose electrical
characteristics change from insulative to conductive with the
exposure to hydrogen gas was proposed, as shown in Fig.1.
Then, a line-type (1-dimensional) sensor device was fabricated
in order to demonstrate the operational principle. The scheme of
the device is shown in Fig.2. The Pt/ WO3 thin film was firstly
coated on the glass substrate using sol-gel technique. Secondly, a
couple of Al and Ni-Cr long interdigital electrodes were sputtered
onto this film. Appropriate constant voltage was applied to both
ends of electrodes and currents were monitored. The operation
principle is analogous to that of PSD (Position Sensitive Detector).
If a part of line-type device is exposed to hydrogen gas Al and
Ni-Cr electrodes are short-circuited because Pt/ WO3 hydrogen

ic

ia

H2 gas

id

ib

V
10.00

Common electrode

V
(a) Structure and operational principle of the device

H2 gas

i2
x=1
Leak location
i2
Al electrode
(Common electrode) x = f (r) r = i1

x=0

100.00

Electrode d

Electrode b

ic

V2

i1

Current ratio: r -

Electrode c

Pt/WO3 thin film

(hydrogen switch)

Ni-Cr electrode
(resistor)

V1

Fig. 2. Photograph and scheme of 1-dimensional

hydrogen sensor device fabricated by sol-gel method

V
Electrode a

switch of this point becomes on-state. Therefore, electrical

resistance of long electrode is divided at this point and
corresponding currents are detected.
The ratio of the currents (r) is related to the leakage position (x)
normalized with the device length as the following simple
equation.
x ..........................................................................
r=
(1)
1 x
Therefore, this ratio is used as sensor signal.
Fig. 3 represents the dependence of the sensor signal on the
leakage position. The dotted line in this figure indicates the
theoretical values calculated from the equation (1). Although the
experimental data deviated somewhat from theoretical values, it is
found that a leakage point could be determined with this ratio.
Furthermore, the response speed was very fast and no influence of
leak rate and the distance from the device surface to the leakage
point on steady-state sensor signal was observed. The authors
conclude that this method is suitable to detect the leakage point of
fuel cell equipments, such as cell stack and gas pipe-line, with
lower-cost and ease.

id

1.00

0.10

Resistor
Pt/WO3

Theoretical line
Experimental data

0.01
0.0

(b) Cross-sectional view of the device

Fig. 1. Conception of 2-dimensional hydrogen gas

sensor device

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Normalized leakage location: x -

Fig. 3.
4

Typical characteristics as leakage location detector