In-situ X-ray nano-CT System for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells under Operating Conditions

Abstract

We developed two types of in-situ three-dimensional imaging systems on the basis of full-field transmission X-ray computed tomography (XCT) methods for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) under operating conditions at beamline BL36XU at SPring-8. One was for a wide field of view (more than 500 μm) to obtain the whole membrane electrode assembly (MEA) images, and the other was for nano spatial resolution (less than 100 nm) using a Fresnel zone plate as objective optics. We succeeded in in-situ three-dimensional visualization of an MEA in PEFC using both XCT measurement systems and show preliminary results.