Palladium dust has been used in the construction of an extremely sensitive hydrogen gas sensor.

The sensor, developed by a research team at Yokohama National University, Japan, is able to detect the gas in under a second.

According to Asia Pulse, its detection powers are so finely tuned that it is able to detect hydrogen in amounts as small as 100 parts per million.

Conventional sensors take two or three seconds to work and require several times more hydrogen to be present in the air.

Palladium dust is used to cover alternating layers of electrodes and a red pigment called diketo pyrrolo pyrrole (DPP), which are stacked on a glass substrate.

The device works by converting hydrogen molecules that come near the palladium into hydrogen ions.

Those ions are then absorbed by the red pigment, which alters the electrical resistance of the sensor and changes the current flow in the electrodes.

Last month, platinum was used in the construction of the world's smallest combined pressure and temperature sensor.

The device from Kulite Sensors measured just six millimetres in diameter.

Ÿ Adfero Ltd