A technique to measure hydrogen absorption in isolated nanometer structures

We describe an apparatus assembled to measure hydrogen absorption on a monolayer of isolated nanometer scale entities. Utilizing inexpensive and readily available high frequency surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors we achieve a sensitivity of 4 pg, sufficient to detect hydrogen uptake at less than 1% in nanogram level samples of such entities at room temperature. Results of hydriding rare earth metal nanoparticles and a transition metal-carbon complex measured with 315 MHz SAW resonators are presented. However, the design of our apparatus is general and can be used with a wide variety of commercial SAW sensors.