The usefulness of a new approach to detecting the distribution of hydrogen absorbed into pure iron utilizing a WO_(3) thin film was demonstrated in this study. A WO_(3) film with an electrochromic property was formed on the hydrogen detection side of iron sheet by reactive magnetron sputtering. After hydrogen was absorbed into the iron sheet by cathodic polarization on the hydrogen absorption side, the color of the WO_(3) film corresponding to the electrode area changed from light blue to dark blue. The WO_(3) film was found to reflect the distribution of hydrogen absorbed into the pure iron sheet. No color change occurred on the hydrogen detection side unless a Pd film was inserted between the WO_(3) film and the iron specimen. The reflectance of the WO_(3) film in the visible region was reduced by hydrogen charging, with a marked reduction in the RGB color values after the start of hydrogen charging. The results of an XPS analysis suggested that the phase transition from WO_(3) to H_(x)WO_(3) resulted in the color change of the WO_(3) film during hydrogen charging. Because of the simplicity of this approach to detecting hydrogen compared to other hydrogen detection methods, it is expected to have various applications.
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