Room temperature H2 gas sensor using candle carbon soot

Abstract

Hydrogen (H2) gas is rising as a promising fuel source to replace available fossil fuels. It is well known that H2 based fuel finds numerous applications in transportation, industries and in rockets for space vehicles, therefore, the fabrication of H2 sensor is important for its safe and controlled use. But, detection of H2 gas at room temperature with fast response and recovery time is still a challenge. In last few years, carbon materials are widely investigated because it is enormously sensitive to H2 at room temperature conditions. In this work, the inexpensive candle carbon soot (CCS) is used to detect H2 gas at room temperature conditions. A simple flame of candle is used to synthesize the multilayers of carbon soot at room temperature conditions. It is observed that the functionalized of CCS in inert atmosphere plays an important role in the enhancement of structural and sensing properties as compared to as-synthesized CCS. The structural properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction(XRD), Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We further reported that CCS proved prominent sensing materials for the 2% detection of H2 at room temperature.