Trace Level Sulfur Sensor for Fuel Cells

The primary objective of this work is to develop a trace level sulfur sensor for high sensitivity detection of impurities before they reach hydrogen fuel cell membranes. A novel sensing mechanism, “hybrid plasmon damping”, was explored to detect and quantify the sulfur traces in hydrogen fuels using the spectral shifts that is generated by the interaction of silver nanoparticles and sulfur compounds. We have investigated the sensor technology for detection of sulfur compounds to the part per billion (ppb) trace levels that are typically present in hydrogen fuels, and demonstrated this unique sensing mechanism through bench top experimental set ups and analysis methods.