Power Boosters

Solartron Analytical's range of power boosters in combination with single and multi-channel potentiostats enables high performance electrochemical tests to be run on a wide range of energy storage devices and electrochemical cells. These techniques include Potentiostat/galvanostat DC tests, cyclic voltammetry, ohmic drop and voltage/current pulse and change/discharge cycling. In addition, a frequency response analyzer (FRA) can be added to the system to provide complete impedance (AC) characterization of the cell.

Features

• Maximum applied polarization 50 V/25 A
• Frequency range 10 µHz to 100 kHz
• Compatible with Solartron potentiostats including 1280, 1285A, 1287A, 1470E, 1480A and 1470A
• Compatible with Solartron FRAs including 1250, 1252A, 1253A, 1255, 1260A, 1455, 1451 (with appropriate potentiostat)
• Compatible with CellTest® Software and MultiStat, ZPlot/CorrWare (downloadable from www.scribner.com)

Applications include:

• Development of energy sources for laptop PCs, mobile phones and power tools.

• Fuel cell and supercapacitor research for electric vehicle or standby power.
• Battery research including the new generation 42V lead acid automotive batteries.
• Electrochemical etching and electroplating.

For DC test work, an extensive range of techniques are available for use with these boosters:

• potentiostatic / galvanostatic
• cyclic voltammetry
• ohmic drop
• high-speed voltage / current pulse techniques (e.g. for testing GSM mobile phone and satellite communication energy storage devices)

When used for measuring AC impedance, the following analysis techniques are available depending on the chosen configuration of potentiostat and FRA:

• Swept sine analysis - for ultimate accuracy and repeatability
• Multi-sine / Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) - for fast impedance analysis
• Harmonic analysis - for optimization of stimulus levels and detection of noise and interference

The frequency range of the power booster is 10 µHz to 100 kHz allowing a wide range of energy storage devices to be characterized over their full frequency range.

Software
These power boosters are fully integrated with the full range of Solartron single and multi-channel software packages. All scaling factors and control issues are taken care of by the software.

High performance...
These power boosters are designed to operate with Solartron single and multi-channel potentiostats.

• Floating design - enables tests on grounded cells
• Simultaneous DC and impedance tests on short stack fuel cells and individual cells within the stack (depending on potentiostat capability)
• Choice of models with up to 50V / 25A range
• 100 kHz impedance measurement bandwidth for SOFC and other high frequency applications
• Automatically controlled by the potentiostat

Choice of models
Four models are available, as follows:

(* discharge mode only, for fuel cell tests, maximum power 125 W)

Impedance measurement accuracy
Note: 1V ac excitation, except at lower impedance levels where the
excitation is reduced to maintain the current limit.