Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) have
succeeded in imaging the distribution of frozen and liquid water in a hydrogen
fuel cell directly for the first time. They applied a new imaging technique
that uses successively two beams with different neutron energies to distinguish
between areas with liquid water and those with ice extremely reliably. The
method therefore opens up the prospect of studying one of the main problems of
using fuel cells to power vehicles: ice can clog the pores in the fuel cells
and affect their performance. The PSI scientists’ results will be published in
the journal Physical Review Letters on 16 June 2014.