Plasmonic cyclohexane-sensing by sputter-deposited Au nanoparticle array on SiO

Kawaguchi, Kazuhiro*; Yamamoto, Shunya; Yoshikawa, Masahito; Takahiro, Katsumi*

Liquid organic-hydrides such as cyclohexane which can release-absorbing hydrogen in reversible have been proposed approvable carriers to store and transport hydrogen. However, organic-hydrides are known as highly flammable in air. To realize practical use of this hydrogen production process, the monitoring of leakage of organic-hydride gas is strongly required. In the present work, we have examined the plasmonic sensing ability of Au nanoparticle (NP) arrays for dilute cyclohexane. Au NP arrays were prepared on SiO by a sputter deposition technique. The change in an extinction spectrum of Au NP arrays before and after exposure of cyclohexane vapor enabled us to detect it. The Au NP array prepared with 4.4 10 Au atoms/cm deposited at 300C was and demonstrated a high sensitivity for cyclohexane at RT. The experimentally detectable concentration of cyclohexane was as low as 0.5 vol%, much lower than its explosion limit (1.3 vol%).