Die Aufklärung spezifischer Fragestellungen zur Funktionalität von PEM(polymer electrolyte membrane)- und DMFC(Direct Methanol)-Brennstoffzellen bedarf der 3D-Abbildung der spezifischen Komponenten mit unterschiedlichen Strahlungsarten: des Wassergehalts in den Flow Fields mit Neutronen, der Katalysator-Alterung in der MEA (membrane electrode assembly) mit Synchrotronstrahlung und der freien (reaktiven) Katalysator-Oberfläche von Nano-Partikeln mit TEM-Elektronen-Tomografie. Diese Messungen im Bereich der mm- bis nm-Skala unterliegen dabei erheblichen Restriktionen: einer ortsabhängigen Verschmierung der Neutronenradiogramme, Manipulatorinstabilitäten der Synchrotronmessungen sowie einer Kombination von Limited-View-Datensätzen, wenigen Projektionswinkeln und teilweiser Nichtdurchstrahlbarkeit in der Elektronen-CT. Die Vorteile eines fortentwickelten Directt-Algorithmus für die Bewältigung dieser Randbedingungen gegenüber gefilterten Rückprojektionen werden aufgezeigt.
In order to demonstrate the challenging tasks in current R&D applications in the field of renewable energy
sources experimental neutron and electron tomographic data sets of PEM fuel cell components are processed by
an advanced version of the DIRECTT algorithm. The neutron measurements of the water distribution suffer from
several intrinsic limitations such as massive position dependent focal smearing due to the large primary neutron
beam aperture. Electron (TEM) tomography allows characterisation of nanometre sized catalyst particles but is
hampered by the following restrictions: partial opacity, a limited sector of projections (missing wedge), very few
projections, samples exceeding the detector size (region of interest) and improper angular alignment. Beyond the
capabilities of other algorithms DIRECTT proves to overcome these essential reconstruction problems, in
comparison to FBP and SIRT. Nevertheless, careful data pre-processing is an inevitable requirement in order to
fully exploit the algorithm's potentials.
CT (computed tomography) reconstructions of fuel cell components of a yet unrivaled spatial resolution and quality are presented. This is achieved by application of the novel DIRECTT (Direct Iterative Reconstruction of Computed Tomography Trajectories) algorithm. We focus on two different key issues which essentially rule the fuel cell's durability on different length scales and physical interactions. On the resolution scale of some 100 µm agglomerations of condensed water in flow-field channels are detected by means of quasi-in situ neutron CT (after operation). Five orders of magnitude below nanometer sized Ru catalyst particles on carbon black support are visualized by electron tomography. Both types of experiments are especially adapted to the type of material involved but they are accompanied by severe deviations from ideal CT measuring conditions, as well. In order to overcome the tremendous reconstruction artifacts of standard algorithms, we employ DIRECTT which is described in detail. Comparisons of DIRECTT reconstructions to the conventional filtered back projection, prove the significant improvements in both experimental methods.