Instruments for Energy Storage
Energy storage and energy conversion devices are both used to fill the need for portable as well as renewable power. The evolving needs require the improvement in capability to provide pulse-power, long run-time and cycle life. New materials and advancements of engineering play a key role in meeting the market demand.
Li-ion batteries are today’s leading technology in this space. Cyclic voltammetry is used in the development of the material and identification of its potential window (charge cut-off voltage and discharge cut-off voltage), and is also the primary technique in identification of new electrolytes. The BNC connections of both the Solartron Analytical EnergyLab and Princeton Applied Research potentiostats provide an interface common for the glovebox feedthroughs often needed for this type of research.
As the goal of a rechargeable battery is to provide high cycle-life, high efficiency, and high energy density, prospective new materials are combined into a complete cell and tested in a charge – discharge experiment to determine the capacity vs cycle number, cycle-life and Coulombic efficiency. Battery holders for PARSTAT and VersaSTAT potentiostats allow for direct connection of common battery formats to the instrument. Direct connection through a battery holder avoids the added stray capacitance and inductance to impedance measurements, and creates a cleaner signal and a cleaner lab.
The use of auxiliary voltage measurements allows monitoring of both the anode and cathode of a battery. Standard potentiostat design concentrates on the signal and response at the Working Electrode, and the Counter Electrode reactions are not characterized. Other applications use an inert Counter Electrode, but in battery technology this is an active electrode. Being able to characterize this terminal allows users to identify failure mechanisms and properly focus research initiatives. This is available on the PARSTAT 3000A and EnergyLab products for single cell evaluation and PARSTAT MC for multichannel, simultaneous tests for improved throughput.
The typically flat-voltage profile, seen as a key advantage of Li-technology, drives the need for advanced techniques to determine State of Charge. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) is the emerging method for making these determinations in-situ. EIS is also used to determine how the battery is functioning with respect to its anticipated lifetime (State of Health). The full range of products from Princeton Applied Research and Solartron Analytical provide these measurement capabilities either as standard or as options. EIS also provides a mechanism via equivalent circuit analysis or simple visual reference to identify the Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) of a battery. This is a key figure of merit as it represents a loss of the system. The EnergyLab EIS methods, including its innovative FRA-technology and oversampling, allows for characterization of devices of micro-ohm impedance.
For extreme applications that require greater than 5 V or 2 A of current, batteries can be configured in stacks. Since stacks are purposefully designed for operation at high voltages (up to 100 V) or high currents (up to 100 A), external boosters are required. External boosters are available in a wide range of measurement capacities, bandwidth and accuracy to meet a given testing profile. The PMC-2000A and PARSTAT3000A provide the voltage range to test a stack of batteries as well as the standard, additional electrometer to measure the characteristics (including impedance) of a single battery within the stack. The EnergyLab provides multiple electrometers to study even more cells within the stack.
Whatever your requirements in state-of-the-art energy storage and energy conversion applications, AMETEK’s Princeton Applied Research and Solartron Analytical advanced instrumentation provides the tools for market leading impedance analysis, with the widest voltage and current ranges available for anode/cathode and stack testing.
Have we got news for you…
It’s almost here – our new website will soon be giving you better access to product information, application notes, and videos. Plus easier website navigation, larger photos and two blogs! Yes, two.
In addition to our regular blog covering new products and events, we are also introducing a technology blog that features how our products and those we distribute are used in applications around the globe.
We hope you will enjoy reading it. So make a note in your calendar app, diary, wall planner or whatever… Tuesday, September 24th is go to the all new www.elliotscientific.com day.
New academic year, new website next week
With the academic year underway here in the UK, and ‘Freshers’ enjoying the delights of their new surroundings, we thought you might like to know that preparations for the launch of our revised and expanded website are well in hand.
Early next week, the new look www.elliotscientific.com will be up and running. Here’s a preview shot to give you an idea of what’s coming…
LASER World of PHOTONICS opens today
The biennial photonics-fest that is colloquially named LASER Munich opens this morning.
Exhibitors will be demonstrating their wares that include optics, lasers, instrumentation and all things related, to over 30,000 visitors across the four days of the show.
Elliot Scientific is at LASER World of PHOTONICS, on stand 340 of our friends Mountain Photonics in Hall B2.
Our Mountain Photonics’ friends at Munich in 2017
You can chat to us about our opto-mechanics, optical tweezers and more.
We look forward to seeing you.
New logos and colours unveiled
To coincide with our new philosophy of linking customers with solutions and applications with technologies, we are introducing a vibrant, fresh company colour scheme and logo set.
Please welcome…
Elliot Scientific aims to offer synergy in product lines that will deliver significant benefits to our customers. So, by having us as a supplier for a range of needs, we can provide complete solutions for your requirements.
Elliot Scientific’s 2018 newsletters published in one volume
Elliot Scientific’s renowned monthly newsletters have been compiled into a single edition for the year 2018.
The 32-page volume can be:
Read online via Issuu
Downloaded from our website
Photonex Europe Live! opens in Coventry tomorrow – Stand B10 for Elliot Scientific
Elliot Scientific returns to stand B10 at Photonex in Coventry tomorrow and Thursday, offering the chance to experience the quality of our internationally renowned Elliot|Martock range first hand.
Exported the world over, our XYZ flexure stages are used for alignment and fiber launch in research and production environments, while our portfolio of miniature translation and rotary stages are often incorporated into OEM products for the optical and semiconductor industries.
For the first time at Photonex we will have items from the Siskiyou catalogue, including their sought after IXF mirror mounts so you can discover how they deliver their exceptional pointing stability in thermally demanding situations.
Also new for 2018 are high speed lasers from IPG Photonics. Operating in the pico and femtosecond regimes, these green and IR lasers are ideal for scientific and medical research.
Finally, life scientists love our Prizmatix ultra high power LED light sources, so we thought you might like to see them too.
August 2018 newsletter now online…
The Elliot Scientific August newsletter is now available. In this issue an IPG laser, Lake Shore temperature sensors and Siskiyou IXF components are used in a breakthrough Los Alamos & University of New Mexico all optical cryocooler; microscopists can benefit from Elliot Scientific Optical Tweezers, the Mad City Labs RM21 platform, and microspectroscopy from CRAIC Technologies; plus ICEC27-ICMC 2018 in Oxford and more…
To view it in a browser, click here.
To read it magazine-style online, click here.
To download it as a PDF, click here.
If you would like us to keep you up to date through our monthly email newsletters, then subscribe using this link.
Economic laser trapping is made possible with Elliot Scientific Optical Tweezers
Optical Tweezers have been around for a long time. Over 40 years have passed since Arthur Ashkin and his colleagues described the single-beam gradient force trap and sparked a realisation in many scientists that this novel instrument would be a powerful tool for use in the course of their research. However, the costs and complexities of building Optical Tweezers were often prohibitive.
With the development of easy to use ‘straight out of the box’ systems by Elliot Scientific, Optical Tweezers have come down from the heights of esoteric research and can be found in many labs around the world. Real experiments carried out in one such lab can be found here.
Download our Optical Tweezers Brochure. It describes all the systems we offer; from open architecture kits to complete computer-controlled multiple spot trapping systems with force detection and more, or contact us to discuss details.
December 2017 Newsletter Out Now
The Elliot Scientific December 2017 newsletter is now available: In this issue we examine the economic’s of laser trapping with Elliot Scientific Optical Tweezers, look at a hot performer from Neoptix – The NOMAD-Touch fibre-optic thermometer, see a video of how the DEMCON|kryoz CryoLab can measure Seebeck coefficients, and get the measure of the superior pitch adjuster screw sets from Kozak Micro…
To view it in a browser, click here.
To read it magazine-style online, click here.
To download it as a PDF, click here.
We are in Edinburgh next week for IUPAB / EBSA
The joint 19th International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB) and 11th European Biophysical Societies’ Association (EBSA) Congress takes place in Edinburgh next week.
From Sunday, July 16th to Thursday the 20th., the British Biophysical Society and the Biological Physics Group of the Institute of Physics (IOP) will host an outstanding scientific programme for this major international combined biophysics event. All areas of contemporary biophysics will be included in a varied programme covering single molecule studies to complex machineries.
Elliot Scientific will be demonstrating a complete system from our Optical Tweezers range that features tracking and force measurement on exhibition days: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. You can also ask us about nanopositioning equipment for the microscope from Mad City Labs, as well as LED light sources and instruments designed for microscopy and optogenetics studies from Prizmatix, the LDLS – a novel super bright broadband lamp from Energetiq Technologies, and Spatial Light Modulators from HOLOEYE.
We can be found on Stand 40 within the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
Laser World of Photonics next week – Automated Alignment, Optical Tweezers, Flexure Stages and more
Messe München will be hosting next week’s Laser World of Photonics exhibition and conference from June 26th for 4 days, and Elliot Scientific will be on Stand 232 in Hall B3.
We will be showing our new DAli 3 Device Automatic Alignment Systems with USB interface, demonstrating live particle trapping using our popular Optical Tweezers system, and giving visitors the opportunity to experience first-hand the quality and precision of our Elliot|Martock range.
So come and see XYZ Flexure Stages, smooth miniature positioning slides, and more!
Our extensive portfolio of precision opto-mechanical components, custom design solutions, and a myriad other products that we distribute in the UK and Ireland can also be discussed with our knowledgeable and friendly team.
Elliot Scientific 