Modify on-the-Fly: Flexible potentiostat/battery cycler control

No need to stop the experiment. EC-Lab® and BT-Lab®’s “modify-on-the-fly” functionality gives you increased freedom, flexibility and control and opens up new research opportunities whether you are working with an electrochemical workstation (potentiostat) or a battery cycler.

The ability to make changes to control settings during an experiment, or “modify on-the-fly” as we sometimes call it, is unique to Bio-Logic’s EC/BT-lab® control software. This functionality gives users a huge amount of flexibility, freedom, and control; enabling them to build experiments with potentiostats and battery cyclers progressively and without having to anticipate and plan the process from scratch. It can even help them from a safety perspective and can save valuable lead time.

However, perhaps most importantly of all, it gives users full, real-time control over their electrochemical experiments, so that they can observe redox reaction changes, and make the appropriate setting modifications in real-time.

This article gives practical examples of how this valuable functionality can change the way you work with your potentiostat or battery cycler to help you work more efficiently and open up new research opportunities.

Can I change the charge current of a battery during cycling
Of course. Applying a current rate to a battery can sometimes necessitate an element of trial and error. Battery Cycler users will generally apply a current to cell or battery based on an understanding of its nominal capacity. However, any overestimation of this capacity will logically result in an overestimation of the current needed to obtain a specific C-rate. With other electrochemical control software packages, you would have to stop the experiment and start again. EC-Lab/BT-Lab® enables you to make the necessary changes while the experiment is running.

I want to vary the potential vertex in a cyclic voltammetry experiment, in real time…
The ability to change settings to an experiment already on the go is especially important for cyclic-voltammetry measurements where users wish to examine redox reactions occurring at different potentials. The ability to change settings enables users to step back from the experiment, adjust the voltage scan, and understand in real-time how these settings impact on the intensity of the electrochemical reactions in progress. Without this functionality, users of both battery cyclers and potentiostats would have to stop the experiment and start from scratch, meaning they would have to superimpose data from a different graph drawn from previous experiments.

My cell could become volatile if I don’t change my experiment settings quickly, but I don’t want to stop my experiment!

EC-Lab/BT-Lab® will let you change the settings if applied current or voltage look likely to breach thresholds.