Ultrasensitive plasmonic response of bimetallic Au/Pd nanostructures to hydrogen

Hydrogen detection is crucial for the safety of all hydrogen-related applications. Compared to electrical hydrogen sensors, which usually suffer from possible electric sparks, optical hydrogen sensors offer advantages of remote and contact-free readout and therefore the avoidance of spark generation. Herein, bimetallic Au/Pd nanostructure monolayers that exhibit ultrasensitive plasmonic response to hydrogen are reported. Bimetallic Au/Pd nanostructures with continuous and discontinuous Pd shells are prepared. The plasmonic response to hydrogen is monitored by measuring the extinction spectra of the ensemble Au/Pd nanostructures deposited on glass slides. Introduction of hydrogen induces red plasmon shifts, which become larger for the nanostructures with thicker Pd shells. For the nanostructures with continuous Pd shell, the plasmon shift can reach 56 nm at the hydrogen volume concentration below the explosion limit. The plasmon resonance wavelength displays an excellent linear dependence on the hydrogen volume concentration below 1%. The detection limit in the experiments reaches 0.2%. The nanostructures with discontinuous Pd shell show smaller plasmon shifts than those with continuous Pd shell. The extinction measurements on the ensemble nanostructures supported on transparent substrates and the unprecedentedly large plasmon shifts and sensitivity make the results very promising for the development of practical optical hydrogen sensors.