Visualization of Water Distribution in Operating PEMFC Using X-Ray Microscopy

In this investigation, X-ray microscopy (7B2) in Pohang Accelerator Laboratory was employed to visualize the water distribution in operating PEMFC which had 2cm × 2cm active area. This X-ray microscopy has 1μm spatial resolution with 1.5mm × 1.2mm view area. Each image spent about 1.3 second, 0.65 second for exposure and about 0.6 second for data read out. The resistance of the electric loader was changed and electric current and voltage was measured during images were recorded. The water distribution in PEMFC was analyzed with this I-V curve. Water distribution was depend on current density and aggregated on interfaces of layers (GDL, MPL, MEA).