Fuel Cells
Fuel cells are a highly efficient, zero emission, noiseless power source, which in the future could replace batteries and even the internal combustion engine. Numerous cell technologies exist that have significant potential in many application areas - from stationary power supplies for domestic use through to micro fuel cells for mobile telephones and laptop PCs. Development is being aided by advances in Solartron test instrumentation used for analyzing electrochemical and material properties.
Traditional DC techniques such as current interrupt for the determination of ohmic losses within the cell and polarization scans are being complemented with AC techniques such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) that allow the measurement of all processes within a single frequency sweep. This technique has already been proved to increase research and development productivity since accurate and repeatable measurements can be performed within minutes, yielding mechanistic information that was until now beyond the scope of traditional DC techniques.
Solartron is a pioneer in the field of DC and AC electrochemical techniques and has developed products specifically to meet the requirements of the fuel cell industry. The unique 1470A Battery Test System was designed specifically for running multi-channel high speed pulse and impedance tests on energy storage devices such as fuel cells. The 1470A Battery Test System not only allows the impedance of the whole cell to be tested, it can also test individual fuel cell components such as membranes, bipolar plates and catalyst structures by use of auxiliary voltage inputs. The system is the only multi-channel test product on the market at this time that is able to integrate testing (up to 1MHz) over a wide frequency range at high current densities (up to 4A per channel).
Energy Storage
Battery testers and supercapacitor testing manufacturers rely heavily on energy storage device test equipment, yet until now, have been limited either to high performance single channel units such as our own 1260A/1287A, or relatively low performance multi-channel systems. As well as battery companies, manufactures of laptop computers, mobile telephones, camcorders, palmtops and powertools are also trying to find the optimum cell properties. This is to make sure that they get the best battery cycle life, shortest charge times and best standby performance, longest discharge capability and smallest size and weight.
Solartron designed the 1470A Battery Test System to specifically address the shortcomings of other multi-channel devices allowing high speed pulse and impedance test on batteries and supercapacitors. The system is now widely used in research, development and quality assurance applications.
Battery Testing, Fuel Cells & Supercapacitors
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Solartron CellTest® System |
Electrochemistry Test Systems
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1260A/1287A Full Electrochemistry System: 10µHz-1MHz |
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1280Z Electrochemical System |
Power Boosters
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Power Boosters |
