Hydrogen
gas is rapidly approaching a global breakthrough as a
carbon-free energy vector. In such a hydrogen economy, safety sensors
for hydrogen leak detection will be an indispensable element along
the entire value chain, from the site of hydrogen production to the
point of consumption, due to the high flammability of hydrogen–air
mixtures. To stimulate and guide the development of such sensors,
industrial and governmental stakeholders have defined sets of strict
performance targets, which are yet to be entirely fulfilled. In this
Perspective, we summarize recent efforts and discuss research strategies
for the development of hydrogen sensors that aim at meeting the set
performance goals. In the first part, we describe the state-of-the-art
for fast and selective hydrogen sensors at the research level, and
we identify nanostructured Pd transducer materials as the common denominator
in the best performing solutions. As a consequence, in the second
part, we introduce the fundamentals of the Pd–hydrogen interaction
to lay the foundation for a detailed discussion of key strategies
and Pd-based material design rules necessary for the development of
next generation high-performance nanostructured Pd-based hydrogen
sensors that are on par with even the most stringent and challenging
performance targets.