Viscosity & The Development of Battery Technologies

From achieving uniform electrode coatings to ensuring ion mobility in extreme temperatures, understanding viscosity is essential for developing high-performing and reliable batteries.

Common viscosity struggles in battery development include:

Labor intensive processes
Lack of glovebox compatability
Low repeatability for low viscosity samples (< 10 cP), like battery electrolytes.
Solvent evaporation and moisture contamination
Bulky and slow external temperature controls
Large sample requirements

Viscosity testing helps with:

Conductivity

Viscosity impacts ion migration and charge/discharge rates.

Stress Testing

Stress evaluation across time, temperature, and shear, reflecting real production and use conditions.

Optimization

Concentration, sedimentation, & more can be characterized through viscosity testing.

Battery Slurries

When coating with a battery electrode slurry with a slot die, doctor blade, or other technique, achieving an optimal and uniform layer relies on precise and consistent viscosity.

Shear Rate Profiling: Because slurries are non-Newtonian, characterizing their flow behavior across a wide range of shear rates is essential for good process control.
Production Consistency: Testing viscosity early and often guarantees uniform coating, consistent delivery, and long-term cell performance.

Electrolyte Solutions

Electrolyte solutions must strike the right balance between ability to dissociate ions and low enough viscosity for high-enough ion mobility. Without regular, precise testing, achieving this delicate balance is difficult.

HTS of Formulations: Comprehensively test numerous electrolyte component combinations early in development to ensure they meet strict industry standards.
Thermal Testing: Batteries can face harsh temperature conditions. Quickly quantify the viscosity of your electrolytes for a wide temperature range (as low as 4 °C) to guarantee reliability and product safety.

Why RheoSense?

Because battery electrolytes are volatile, accurate measurement requires a closed system to prevent evaporation. This limitation is a common pain point for other technologies, but our technology addresses this effectively.

RheoSense viscometers use proprietary VROC^® technology to take the most accurate and repeatable measurements from the smallest sample sizes possible saving your valuable sample for further development. A wide dynamic range with shear rates also allow you to measure non-Newtonian slurries.

Improve Your Development with VROC

RheoSense VROC technology provides the following key benefits for your battery electrolyte and electrode slurry testing needs:

Full automation (sample loading, measurement, and cleaning) with high-throughput screening (HTS) mode on Initium 1++ for measuring up to 96 samples in 21 hours.
Compatibility of Initium 1++ with self-driving labs (SDLs) and liquid handling robots via API (Application Programming Interface).
Wide dynamic range of shear rates for testing non-Newtonian slurries.
Fully compatible with glove boxes.
High accuracy and repeatability, including for low viscosity samples (< 10 cP) like electrolytes
A closed system of the volatile solvent mixtures during storage and testing prevents evaporation and moisture contamination.
Built-in Peltier temperature control ranging from 4 – 70 °C for the chip, plus independent temperature control on Initiium 1++ for the sample storage tray (down to 4 °C) to minimize evaporation during overnight runs.
Small sample volume capability (< 100 µL) saves expensive solvent usage.

Overcome Viscosity Bottlenecks - Battery R&D