Low Cost, Trace Level Sulfur Sensor for Hydrogen Fuel Cells

The development of reliable fuel cell technology will have tremendous impact towards developing a robust hydrogen economy. To utilize a source of hydrogen from reformers has been a major technical barrier to utilize fuel cells as power sources in the DoD applications. An inexpensive and innovative method is needed to continuously monitor the process stream of military logistical fuel (JP8) for sulfur and other compounds which would harm the reformer catalyst and fuel cell operation in order to reduce system costs and logistical footprint. Techno-Sciences, Inc. together with university partner Oklahoma State University proposes to develop a novel low cost nanoparticle surface plasmon resonance sensor capable of detecting part per billion trace levels of sulfur compounds present in the fuels utilized by hydrogen fuel cells. The sensor development will employ a unique nanofabrication technique, “electroless reduction on silicon”, combined with a novel sensing mechanism based on hybrid plasmons. In Phase I, the validity of the approach will be demonstrated as prototype sensor by using bench top experimental set ups and analysis technologies