Three-Electrode Coincell

Arbin Instruments and General Motors are thrilled that the Arbin 3-Electorde testing coin cell for battery research application is a finalist for 2020 R&D Award in Analytical/Test category. Click the link to learn more about this renowned worldwide competition, now in its 58th year, that received entries from 19 countries/regions.

Battery researchers need a three-electrode cell that is:
1) Affordable
2) Easy to use
3) Suitable for mass-scale testing
4) Produces consistent results even during long-term tests

When researching battery materials, the use of a reference electrode (RE) allows researchers to measure and differentiate the contribution of each component in the cell to the overall cell performance.  Three-electrode experiments help identify which electrode (Anode or Cathode) limits the cell performance during long-term testing.  These experiments allow researchers to isolate and analyze the individual contributions of the anode and cathode material in the battery, thus expediting the overall development process.  

DOWNLOAD White Paper

Historically, these existing three-electrode cells require unique cell designs that all have significant flaws or limitations.  Arbin has a new patented three-electrode “3E” cell design that was developed by and licensed from General Motors.  Coincells are the most common format for early materials development. Decoupling the test results between positive and negative electrode allows faster development since each can be evaluated simultaneously in the full cell. Arbin’s easy-to-use three-electrode “3E” coincell kit and holder will reduce the time and cost of battery materials development with a complete solution to evaluate both electrodes individually during the same round of cycling.  Researchers wish to demonstrate and compare their battery materials to existing two-electrode data without normalization. Since most battery material work is conducted using coincells, this is the natural choice for three-electrode  experiments to compare the new results with the vast amount of tradition two-electrode data in publication. However, now the data will decouple the anode and cathode and provide new insights!

A Whitepaper is available for free to download that explains the benefits of three-electrode testing, compares both commercial and common homemade solutions, reveals usage data for Arbin’s new “3E” coincell kits and holders.

The new “3E” holder and coincell kits can be used with any instrument capable of measuring the reference electrode, however, they are designed for use with Arbin’s MSTAT, and optional accessories of Arbin’s MZTC Multi-Chamber, and EIS integration.

Comparing Three-electrode test cells

Compared to traditional Swagelok-style three-electrode cells, Arbin’s new “3E” three-electrode coincell is:
lower cost  |  easy for mass scale testing  |   easy to compare with published data.

Compared to homemade three-electrode solutions, Arbin’s new “3E” three-electrode coincell produces:
consistent results  |  allows long-term cycle life without leakage  |  is easy to use for mass scale testing.