Large-Area Ordered Palladium Nanostructures by Colloidal Lithography for Hydrogen Sensing

Reliable gas sensors are very important for hydrogen (H2) gas detection and storage. Detection methods based on palladium (Pd) metal are cost-effective and widely studied. When Pd is exposed to H2, it turns into palladium hydride with modified optical properties, which thus can be monitored for H2 sensing. Here, we fabricated large-area Pd nanostructures, including Pd nanotriangles and nanohole arrays, using colloidal lithography and systematically studied their H2-sensing performance. After hydrogen absorption, both the Pd nanoholes and nanotriangles showed clear transmittance changes in the visible–near infrared range, consistent with numerical simulation results. The influences of the structural parameters (period of the array P and diameter of the nanohole D) of the two structures are further studied, as different structural parameters can affect the hydrogen detection effect of the two structures. The nanohole arrays exhibited bigger transmittance changes than the nanotriangle arrays.