Design and Implementation of Optical Fiber Sensor Using Palladium and Zinc Oxide Films for Hydrogen

Abstract

This work aimed to design and implements of optical fiber sensor based on a hydrogen-especial material that is inert to variation environment. The sensor design depends on the Palladium and Zinc Oxide coated on glass thin film that adept to detect hydrogen gas. In this research six samples have been prepared, four of them prepared from palladium metal and two other samples prepared from Zinc Oxide. Palladium and Zinc Oxide thin films were prepared on glass substrates. The Films were constructed by vaporization deposition technique, which subjects to three tests. The X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) to check the crystalline structure of the samples, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to study the surface flatness of samples, and the scanning electron microscope (SEM) to take images of surface topography of samples. A polymer test chamber was fabricated to contain the sample. The approach of the manufacture the sensor based on passing the gas to the chamber, which adsorbs on the sample (Palladium, or Zinc Oxide), and the light is transmitted through the sample to the CCS spectrometer to measure and recorded the signal using computer. Six readings were recorded for each sample test under pressures of -0.6, -0.5, -0.4, -0.3, -0.2 and -0.1 bar. Frequency against transmitted light intensity was then plotted for each measurement. From the data recorded, it was found that by increase of concentration of hydrogen gas in the test chamber, the sensitivity is increased linearly as the gas concentration increases, which means that the Zinc Oxide and Palladium thin film samples successfully detect hydrogen gas.