Tailored Pd-Au layer produced by conventional evaporation process for hydrogen sensing

Here we propose two methods using conventional evaporation process to produce tailored Pd/Au composite thin films for hydrogen sensing. In the first method Pd and Au are evaporated simultaneously using different evaporation rate. In the other, alternated nano-layer of Pd and Au are evaporated. Some characteristics of the thin films and their response to hydrogen when they are deposited over optical fibers are experimentally analyzed. Optical fiber sensors for detection of hydrogen concentration lower than 4% and response time of 10 s approximately are demonstrated. The possibility to precisely control the proportion of the constituents of Pd-alloys thin films to produce optical fiber hydrogen sensors with fast response makes these methods very attractive. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.