Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Lithium-ion batteries are the state-of-the-art power sources for portable electronics, power tools and now electrified vehicles. The Dahn group at Dalhousie is one of the world-leading research groups in the development of new electrode materials for Li-ion batteries. Li[Ni(1/3)Mn(1/3)Co(1/3)]O2, invented at Dalhousie, is now replacing LiCoO2 as the electrode material of choice in many applications. Li[Ni(1/3)Mn(1/3)Co(1/3)]O2 was used at a rate of 8000 metric tonnes per year in 2008 as a positive electrode material in Li-ion batteries. Developing such materials requires precision battery test equipment so that the charge-discharge cycle life, the differential capacity versus potential, the potential versus specific capacity and the discharge rate capability of new electrode materials can be measured. Our present battery test equipment was purchased in 1991 and has had two computer swaps and three charger channel augmentations (to a total of 160 channels) since then. Now, the HP8000 workstation that runs the system is no longer supported by HP, the proprietary charger software will only run on the HP operating system and the staff at Moli Energy who built (and repaired as needed over the years) our system are no longer employed there. A serious system failure in the fall of 2008 took three weeks to repair due to the dispersal of knowledgable personnel. Another failure like that will mean the end of our system. Without state of the art battery test equipment, we cannot work. Our system is unsupported, very old and needs to be urgently replaced. This application is an urgent request for state-of-the-art battery test equipment.