Hydrogen for electromobility : a promising energy carrier

Electromobility has received important attention in the last few years, but its perception by the public and decision makers is often limited to battery powered vehicles. Alternatives such as hydrogen fuel cells should however be taken into account, as their specific advantages (in particular short refueling times) make electro-mobility as a whole acceptable by a much broader public. Within the SCCER Mobility, PSI and ZHAW work on a novel fuel cell concept aiming at reducing the major limitation to the deployment of fuel cells: their cost

Operando Neutron Imaging

In the past, neutron imaging has been the little brother of advanced neutron spectroscopy techniques due to its apparent simplicity. However, this simplicity allows the studying of complex chemical and electrochemical processes and related devices even under harsh reaction conditions such as high pressure, high temperature, corrosive and/or air sensitive environments. We review a number of highly relevant case studies as archetypal examples of modern energy technology; that is heat storage, power-to-X, batteries, fuel cells, and catalysis. The promising results trigger the further development of neutron imaging towards a chemical imaging method

Water liquid distribution in a bioinspired PEM fuel cell

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)Water management is a key factor in the operation of hydrogen fuel cells since its formation may lead to significant mass transport losses, oxygen diffusion limitation and membrane durability issues. In this work, the effect of different operating conditions on the liquid water distribution inside a 50 cm2 active area bio-inspired PEM fuel cell has been studied. Therefore, a set of experiments was designed varying cell pressure, the reactants relative humidity (anode and cathode), temperature, and cell current density. Liquid water distribution for each operating condition was determined using neutron imaging technique as it has been proved to be an excellent technique for this purpose, including quantitative analysis and water profiles in the different areas of the bio-inspired flow field. The results show that high relative humidity of the inlet gas flows, high pressure, low temperatures and low current density favor the accumulation of water in the flow field channels and GDL. Specifically, water accumulates preferentially in the anode side that make contact with the low part of the cathode foams inserted in the flow field, instead of blocking the closest area to the gases outlets points

3-D simulation of water and heat transport processes in fuel cells during evaporative cooling and humidification

Evaporative cooling is a promising concept improve the efficiency and reduced costs of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) using modified gas diffusion layers with hydrophilic and hydrophobic lines. This concept has been demonstrated to simultaneously achieve cooling and membrane humidification in experiments. We have developed a 3-D numerical model of such an evaporative cooling cell to address remain questions from the experiments

Modelling the effects of using gas diffusion layers with patterned wettability for advanced water management in proton exchange membrane fuel cells

We present a macrohomogeneous two-phase model of a pro- ton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEFC). The model takes into account the mechanical compression of the gas diffusion layer (GDL), the two-phase flow of water, the transport of the gas species and the electrochemical reaction of the reactand gases. The model was used to simulate the behavior of a PEFC with a patterned GDL. The results of the reduced model, which considers only the mechanical compression and the two-phase flow, are compared to the experimental ex-situ imbibition data obtained by neutron radiography imaging. The results are in good agreement. Additionally, by using all the model features, a simulation of an operating fuel cell has been performed to study the intricate couplings in an operating fuel cell and to examine the patterned GDL effects. The model confirms that the patterned GDL design liberates the pre-defined domains from liquid water and thus locally increases the oxygen diffusivity.

<i>In situ</i> diagnostics of the crystal-growth process through neutron imaging:application to scintillators

Neutrons are known to be unique probes in situations where other types of radiation fail to penetrate samples and their surrounding structures. In this paper it is demonstrated how thermal and cold neutron radiography can provide time-resolved imaging of materials while they are being processed (e.g. while growing single crystals). The processing equipment, in this case furnaces, and the scintillator materials are opaque to conventional X-ray interrogation techniques. The distribution of the europium activator within a BaBrCl:Eu scintillator (0.1 and 0.5% nominal doping concentrations per mole) is studied in situ during the melting and solidification processes with a temporal resolution of 5-7 s. The strong tendency of the Eu dopant to segregate during the solidification process is observed in repeated cycles, with Eu forming clusters on multiple length scales (only for clusters larger than ∼50 µm, as limited by the resolution of the present experiments). It is also demonstrated that the dopant concentration can be quantified even for very low concentration levels (∼0.1%) in 10 mm thick samples. The interface between the solid and liquid phases can also be imaged, provided there is a sufficient change in concentration of one of the elements with a sufficient neutron attenuation cross section. Tomographic imaging of the BaBrCl:0.1%Eu sample reveals a strong correlation between crystal fractures and Eu-deficient clusters. The results of these experiments demonstrate the unique capabilities of neutron imaging for in situ diagnostics and the optimization of crystal-growth procedures

Surface-based characteristics of the cerebellar cortex visualized with ultra-high field MRI

Although having a relatively homogeneous cytoarchitectonic organization, the cerebellar cortex is a heterogeneous region characterized by different amounts of myelin, iron and protein expression profiles. In this study, we used quantitative T1 and T2* mapping at ultra-high field (7T) MRI to investigate the tissue characteristics of the cerebellar gray matter surface and its layers. Detailed subject-specific surfaces were generated at three different cortical depths and averaged across subjects to create averaged T1 and T2* maps on the cerebellar surface. T1 surfaces showed an alternation of lower and higher T1 values when going from the median to the lateral part of the cerebellar hemispheres. In addition, longer T1 values were observed in the more superficial gray matter layers. T2* maps showed a similar longitudinal pattern, but no change related to the cortical depths. These patterns are possibly due to variations in the level of myelination, iron and zebrin protein expression

Transcriptomic Signature Differences Between SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza Virus Infected Patients.

The reason why most individuals with COVID-19 have relatively limited symptoms while other develop respiratory distress with life-threatening complications remains unknown. Increasing evidence suggests that COVID-19 associated adverse outcomes mainly rely on dysregulated immunity. Here, we compared transcriptomic profiles of blood cells from 103 patients with different severity levels of COVID-19 with that of 27 healthy and 22 influenza-infected individuals. Data provided a complete overview of SARS-CoV-2-induced immune signature, including a dramatic defect in IFN responses, a reduction of toxicity-related molecules in NK cells, an increased degranulation of neutrophils, a dysregulation of T cells, a dramatic increase in B cell function and immunoglobulin production, as well as an important over-expression of genes involved in metabolism and cell cycle in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 compared to those infected with influenza viruses. These features also differed according to COVID-19 severity. Overall and specific gene expression patterns across groups can be visualized on an interactive website (https://bix.unil.ch/covid/). Collectively, these transcriptomic host responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection are discussed in the context of current studies, thereby improving our understanding of COVID-19 pathogenesis and shaping the severity level of COVID-19

SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity are associated with genetic variants affecting gene expression in a variety of tissues

Variability in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity between individuals is partly due to genetic factors. Here, we identify 4 genomic loci with suggestive associations for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and 19 for COVID-19 disease severity. Four of these 23 loci likely have an ethnicity-specific component. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals in 11 loci colocalize with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) associated with the expression of 20 genes in 62 tissues/cell types (range: 1:43 tissues/gene), including lung, brain, heart, muscle, and skin as well as the digestive system and immune system. We perform genetic fine mapping to compute 99% credible SNP sets, which identify 10 GWAS loci that have eight or fewer SNPs in the credible set, including three loci with one single likely causal SNP. Our study suggests that the diverse symptoms and disease severity of COVID-19 observed between individuals is associated with variants across the genome, affecting gene expression levels in a wide variety of tissue types