Membrane/Electrode Assembly Water Content Measured with 2 µm Spatial Resolution Neutron Imaging

Abstract

Neutron imaging is a completely non-destructive probe of the water content in operating fuel cells. However, the spatial and temporal resolution of the method limits the application range. We report on our continued imaging detector resolution improvements, where we have achieved a spatial resolution of 2 µm. We applied this new detector capability to measure the water content of two different membrane electrode assemblies where the ionomer to carbon mass ratio (I/C) was the only variable. A 1 cm2 active area test section with parallel flow channels was operated as a differential cell at 80 °C at constant voltage.