July 20, 2018
Keio University
Professor Ken Uchida and his research group at the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, have created a hydrogen sensor using a nanoscale thin film of graphite (graphene) and palladium nanodots. They have succeeded in detecting the presence of as few as 10 hydrogen molecules, even with fluctuations in the number of water molecules at a level of 10,000 per million molecules. They developed and utilized a technology that eliminates the influence of moisture on the palladium nanodot catalyst on the graphene by localizing heat generated from electrical energy onto the graphene, a nanoscale material. Furthermore, by taking advantage of the low heat storage capacity of nanoscale materials, they demonstrated that it is possible to rapidly switch between a high-temperature hydrogen detection mode and a low-temperature moisture detection mode using electrical signals. This demonstrates a molecular sensor capable of rapidly switching target gases simply by changing the voltage applied to the sensor, achieved by controlling the heat localized in the nanoscale material. In the coming Internet of Things (IoT) era, it will be crucial to detect a wide variety of molecules for various purposes. By further developing the technology created in this study, a single low-energy nanosensor could identify and detect an even greater number of molecules. It is expected that this could become a key device supporting our big data society, for example, by being integrated into smartphones or small microphones to manage a user's health status based on information from various molecules in their breath.
The results of this research were published in the online early-release version of "ACS Applied Nano Materials," a scientific journal of the American Chemical Society, on July 3, 2018.
Please see below for the full press release.