Research and Application Progress of Hydrogen Sensors

The advancement of the hydrogen energy industry is of considerable importance for the establishment of a clean, low-carbon, secure and efficient contemporary energy system, as well as the realization of the objective of “Double Carbon”. However, the flammable and explosive nature of hydrogen poses a nasty safety hazard. It is of huge significance to develop immediate and efficient detection technologies for hydrogen. In view of the development of hydrogen sensors and their technologies recently, this paper discusses the research progress of resistive sensors, electrochemical sensors, catalytic sensors, optical sensors, mechanical sensors and acoustic sensors. Focusing on the issues of the sensitivity, selectivity, response time and stability of hydrogen sensors, it mainly analyzes the performance characteristics of sensor materials like noble metals such as palladium and platinum, transition metal oxides and reduced graphene oxide, as well as the challenges existing in hydrogen sensing technologies. It is pointed out that the main research directions in the future include the nanostructure design of hydrogen-sensitive materials, the miniaturization design of multifunctional sensors, the low-cost and large-scale green manufacturing, and the intelligent design of hydrogen sensors.