Real-time ionic liquid electrochemical sensor for highly sensitive and selective hydrogen detection and quantification the goal of this project is to develop a low-cost, low-power, and miniaturized…

Real-time ionic liquid electrochemical sensor for highly sensitive and selective hydrogen detection and quantification the goal of this project is to develop a low-cost, low-power, and miniaturized electrochemical hydrogen (H2) sensor technology with PPB level sensitivity and high specificity for real-time detection of H2 loss to the environment. We have demonstrated that electrochemical oxidation of H2 in unique ionic liquids (ILS) electrolytes enables real-time and continuous detection and quantification of H2 with high sensitivity, high specificity, and large dynamic range in a miniaturized sensor chip. Our H2 sensor technology initially targeted for H2 safety application has excellent analytical performance and beneficial characteristics including real-time, small, low power and low cost, and user-friendly that are ideal for environmental H2 loss monitoring. In this DOE project, several innovations are incorporated into three research objectives: objective 1. Advance and optimize a miniaturized electrochemical H2 sensor with PPB level sensitivity. Objective 2. Develop and validate a full-scale H2 sensor prototype. Objective 3. Characterize and validate the full-scale H2 sensor prototype and benchmark its analytical performance in the field. The success of this project will deliver a robust and miniaturized real-time electrochemical H2 sensor technology that is ready for commercialization and deployment for H2 monitoring. Our highly sensitive H2 sensor system will allow linking of the H2 sensor data with other data sets (locations of the facilities, transportation, wind direction, wind speeds, etc.) from geographic information system (GIS) for total H2 leak quantification and leak source localization in the future.