Potentiostat.fi battery analyser

TECHNICAL DATA

Potentiostat.fi battery analysers

Battery analysers Potentiostat.fi series are a powerful tool for a variety of tests of cells, batteries, supercapacitors, supercapacitor modules, and any other chemical current sources.

Battery analysers Potentiostat.fi series tests various sources and energy storage devices, for example:

accumulators and rechargeable batteries of any type (Li-ION, Li-Po, LiFePo4, LTO, NMC, Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, Pb-Acid, as well as any others)

supercapacitors (ultracapacitors), as well as batteries of them

galvanic cells (primary power supplies)

fuel cells and also battery of them

redox batteries

solar panels

wind turbines

as well as any other chemical and physical sources and storages of energy. Battery analysers Potentiostat.fi series contain a controlled power supply and also a controlled electronic load. The power supply can operate in voltage, current or power stabilization modes. The load can operate in voltage, current or power stabilization modes, as well as in resistance stabilization mode.

Potentiostat.fi series can provide a wide variety of operating modes. For example, charging, discharging, and cycling charging and discharging the battery. Testing is performed according to a very flexible test program.
Battery analysers Potentiostat.fi can perform many tests.
For example, the simplest, such as a single charge or a single discharge of the battery.
In addition, the instruments can perform cyclic tests, with multiple alternation of charge and discharge. This is relevant for resource and climatic tests of batteries.

Battery analysers Potentiostat.fi series can perform complex combination modes that simulate real-life battery conditions. For example, simulating the operation of an electric car battery when a car is moving in an urban driving cycle.

Potentiostat.fi battery analysers measures functions

During the tests, the Potentiostat.fi battery analysers measure:

battery charge capacity in Ah;

battery energy capacity in Wh;

equivalent series resistance of the battery (ESR) in Ohms;

electric capacity of supercapacitors in Farads;

efficiency of the charge discharge cycle in terms of capacity (by Ah) in %;

efficiency of the discharge charge cycle in terms of energy (by Wh) in %;

and also, average leakage current per cycle in A.
The analyzer returns measurement results of the parameters of the tested battery in the form of text result files. In addition, software of device automatic plotts of charts of the charge discharge of the tested battery. Finally, software of analyzer automatically builds graphs of degradation of battery parameters (which is convenient, for example, during cycle-life tests).

Modifications of battery analysers Potentiostat.fi

Modifications differ in the following characteristics:

operating range of charge and discharge current: from 0,5 to 150 A (up to 3000 A with parallel operation of devices);

operating voltage range from 1 to 56 V;

maximum power that the analyzer can give when charging and receive when discharging: 1750 W (up to 35 kW with parallel operation of devices);

Battery testing

Battery testing on the Potentiostat.fi analyzer performs according to a user-configurable test program. The test program has very flexible settings. The user configures the test program before starting the test.
The battery test program may contain:

up to three test preparation steps performed once;

up to 42 steps in the cyclic part of the program, executed a given number of times;

as well as up to 3 steps of completion of the test, performed once before the end of the test.

battery-analyzer-battery-testing-program

At each step of the testing program, the Potentiostat.fi battery analyzer can provide the following operating modes:

Charge with constant current;

Discharge with constant current;

Charge with constant power;

Discharge with constant power;

Charge at constant voltage;

Discharge at constant voltage;

Discharge at constant resistance;

Voltage scanning;

Current scanning;

Rest;

Power scanning;

Resistance scanning;

Current pulse mode;

Power pulse mode;

Resistance pulse mode;

Current table mode;

Power table mode;

Resistance table mode;

as well as voltage logger mode.
You can configure the repeating of the cyclic part of the testing program over a million times. Therefore, battery analysers Potentiostat.fi suitable for supercapacitors cycle-life tests.

Battery test modes on Potentiostat.fi analyzer

Potentiostat.fi battery analysers can provide multiple modes of operation with the battery under test. The variety is large.

Charge with constant current

designed to maintain a given charge current regardless of voltage changes. Despite the increase in battery voltage, the charge current remains constant and equal to the specified current.
The step ends in the following cases:

when the voltage reaches a predetermined threshold

after the specified step time has elapsed

as well as if the voltage starts to decrease.

Charge with constant power

maintains a given charge power on the battery. As the voltage rises, the charge current will decrease in order to keep the power value at a given level.

Charge at constant voltage

designed to keep the voltage on the battery at a given level after the main charge. The step, for example, helps to complete a two-stage charge in CC – CV mode. The end of the step occurs when the current drops to a predetermined value, as well as after a predetermined time.

Discharge at constannt current

designed to maintain a given discharge current regardless of voltage. Despite the decrease in voltage, the discharge current remains constant and equal to the specified. The end of a step occurs when the voltage decreases to a specified value, or after a specified time.

potentiostat-discharge-constannt-currente

Discharge at constannt power

designed to maintain the specified discharge power. As the voltage decreases, the current will increase, so the battery discharge power will remain at the specified level.

Discharge at constant resistance

designed to maintain a given battery discharge resistance. With a decrease in voltage, the current will also decrease so that the ratio of voltage and current is equal to the specified.

potentiostat-Discharge-constant-resistance

Discharge at constant voltage

designed to hold the voltage at a given level after discharge. In this mode, the device simulates a powerful zener diode with a given stabilization voltage. The end of the step occurs when the current drops to a predetermined value, as well as after a predetermined time.

Voltage scanning mode

smoothly changes the voltage on the battery. The voltage changes from a given start value U1 to a given end value U2 at a given rate.

You can use a combination of the two voltage scanning modes in the cyclic part of the test program. This makes it possible to investigate chemical current sources by the method of cyclic voltammetry in the mode of a powerful potentiostat galvanostat.

Current scanning mode

smoothly changes the current through the battery. The current changes from the set start current I1 to the set end current I2 at a given speed.

The currents I1 and I2 can be either positive (charge current) or negative (discharge current). In addition, one of the current values can be zero.

Power scanning mode

smoothly changes the power on the battery. The power changes from a given initial power P1 to a given final power P2 at a given speed.

The powers P1 and P2 can be either positive (charge power) or negative (discharge power). In addition, one of the power values can be zero.

Resistance scanning mode

smoothly changes the load resistance for the battery. The resistance changes from the initial value R1 to the final value R2 at a given speed.

Current pulse mode

supplies alternating current pulses of set values I1 and I2 through the accumulator. The current I1 applies for the set time T1, while the current I2 applies for the set time T2. The currents I1 and I2 can be either positive (charge current) or negative (discharge current).

The step ends when the battery voltage reaches the specified value, as well as after the specified time.

Power pulses mode

supplies alternating power pulses with preset values P1 and P2 to the battery. Power P1 applies for a given time T1, while power P2 applies for a given time T2. The powers P1 and P2 can be either positive (charge power) or negative (discharge power).

Resistance modes

supplies alternating impulses of resistance of preset values R1 and R2 to the battery. Resistance R1 applies for a given time T1, while resistance R2 applies for a given time T2.

Table mode

A separate class of operating modes for analysers of batteries is work according to the tables of current, power and resistance.
In these modes, the battery analyzer operates according to previously prepared and selected tables. Tables must contain two columns. The first column is time. The second is the required values of current (power or resistance), which should be at this time. The table modes simulate battery performance in a wide variety of applications.
For example, simulating the operation of an electric car battery when the car is moving in an urban driving cycle, or in any other.
The table modes will be useful for simulating the operation of batteries, for example, in:

electric transport

solar stations

wind farms

wave generators

tidal power plants

as well as in any systems where the change in current, power or resistance of the load on the battery occurs according to complex paterns.

Measurement of the equivalent series resistance of the battery

Potentiostat.fi battery analysers are capable of measuring battery equivalent series resistance (ESR).
There are few ways for ESR measurement. The most accurate way is to interrupt the charge and discharge current with a specified period for a specified time.

This measurement mode allows you to plot the dependence of the ESR of the battery on the degree of its charge or discharge.

ESR measurement also occurs when changing pulses of current, power or resistance in the pulse modes.

Measuring of capacitance of supercapacitors

Among other things, ACK analysers are capable of measuring the electrical capacitance of supercapacitors, in Farads. The capacitance is measured at the constant current discharge step.

Measurement result files

The end result of the work of the Potentiostat.fi battery analysers are text files of the measurement results. The analyzer stores two types of result files. Several files of primary data, as well as one general file of summary measurement results.

Primary data files are saved one for each charge discharge cycle performed. If the test program requires a large number of charge-discharge cycles, you can customize results files thinning. In this case, the primary data files will be saved, for example, only for every 10th cycle.

Primary data files

contain the following parameters:

instantaneous values of voltage (V), current (A) and temperature (°C of °F) with a given step of fixing parameters in time

instantaneous ESR values measured during charge or discharge, Ohm

given or received capacity, Ah, cumulative from the beginning of the step

as well as the given or received energy, Wh, cumulative from the beginning of the step.

Based on the measurement results from the primary data files, there can be:

built charge discharge graphs of the battery

determined the capacity and energy stored by the battery in a specific voltage range

built graphs of cyclic voltammetry

built graphs of ESR changes during charge and discharge

and also built graphs of voltage, current, temperature, capacity, energy and ESR in various combinations.

Summary measurement result files

contain processed data. Each line of the summary results file describes summary data for a whole step, or for a whole cycle.
The lines of the summary measurement results file contain

full duration of a step or cycle

final voltage on the battery, V

final current, A

average battery temperature per step or per cycle, °С or °F

average ESR per step or per cycle, Ohm

total returned capacity, Ah

total returned energy, Wh

measured capacitance in Farads

ESR values measured at the beginning of the charge, as well as at the beginning of the discharge, Ohm

average leakage current per cycle, A

as well as the efficiency of the battery in terms of charge and in terms of energy, %

The software can generate the following types of graphs based on the summary measurement results:

graphs of changes in battery parameters depending on the number of charge discharge cycles passed

graphs of changes in battery parameters depending on its temperature.
This is very useful, for example, for cycle-life testing of batteries or climatic testing of batteries.

Software for battery analysers Potentiostat.fi

Battery analysers work in connection with special software. The oftware is versatile. It is suitable for working with all modifications of Potentiostat.fi devices. The software contains several parts. These parts help to:

preparing and launching a testing program

monitoring the progress of tests

receiving and saving measurement results

analyzer monitoring

as well as identifying the reasons for the abnormal termination of testing in case of its occurrence.

Tasks

On the Tasks page you should:

select and configure the test mode for each step of the test program

introduce protective levels of voltage, current and temperature

select the required modes of saving data to measurement results files

enter battery name

select the path to the measurement results files

run the test with the “Start” button

Table

is intended for selection and adjustment of tables for operating modes according to tables. Here you can select the individual table files for the operating modes according to the current, power and resistance tables. The user can quickly adjust the time range, as well as the range of the parameter in the table with the required multipliers.

Graphs

displays the graphs of the charge discharge of tested battery. Here you can see changing parameters of battery in various combinations, for example:

voltage and current

power and voltage

voltage and load resistance

ESR and voltage

current and ESR

voltage and charge

voltage and energy

dependence of voltage on the given charge

dependence of current vs voltage, which is convenient when testing a sample by the method of cyclic voltammetry

voltage and charge

Results

allows you to observe the formation of files of measurement results.

Analysis

displays graphs of changes in battery characteristics depending on the following parameters:

from the number of completed charge discharge cycles

depending on battery temperature
The page allows you to visually observe the change in the characteristics of the battery during cycle-life tests, as well as during climatic tests.

Settings

is intended for setting up a connection to a battery analyzer or to several analysers in their parallel operation.

Status

provides detailed information on the operation of the ACK battery analyzer. In addition, information is provided on various emergency events that may occur during the tests. potentiostat battery-analyzer-raw-file

Autonomous operation of battery analysers Potentiostat.fi

The Potentiostat.fi battery analysers have built-in memory. The memory halps to save the measurement results in case the connection with the computer becomes temporarily unavailable.
When the connection is restored, the analyzer transfers all the accumulated data to the computer. Then the software saves the data to the files of the measurement results.
As a result, the built-in memory enables the battery analyzer to operate autonomously for some time after starting the test. This allows you to turn off your computer at night, as well as on weekends or holidays.