A water transport plate assembly that is useful in fuel cells includes at least one hydrophilic article such as a flow field layer. A method of making the hydrophilic article includes establishing a hydrophilicity of the article by including a plurality of graphite particles (112) having a particular physical characteristic that imparts the hydrophilicity to the article. In one disclosed example, the selected graphite particles (112) have a wettability ratio of a hydrophilic surface area to a total surface area that is sufficient to make the article hydrophilic. In a disclosed example, the wettability ratio is more than 0.10. In a disclosed example, the graphite particles are selected based upon a percentage of prismatic surface area of the total surface area.