Measure ionic resistance (aka SOP)¶
Note
This standard operating procedure (SOP) also exists in video form
Prepare the workstation¶
Warning
When handling electrolyte always wear goggles and work in a well ventilated space.
Checklist : Gloves, googles, ethanol, wipe, FIPT cell, brush, tweezer, cutting tool, pipette, pipette tips and your electrode.
- Clean the workstation with ethanol.
- Clean the pipette, the tweezer with dry wipe.
- Set the pipette to 300ul and place the pipette tip.
- Clean all parts of the FIPT cell with the brush to remove any contamination of past measurement .
- Clean the cutting tool with the brush. Mind the blades!
- Check age of electrolyte.
- Check FIPT cell is complete: support, base, top and clamp.
- Check screw clutch setting is 0.4Nm
Prepare separators¶
If you have no separator pieces left, cut them in the following way:
- Cut the circular separator material (up to 3 at a time) with the triangle ruler and yellow cutting tool into 21mm wide stripes.
- Cut the stripes into smaller pieces (21mm × 35mm).
- Throw out stripes with exessive wrinkling or contamination.
Label FIPT cell¶
- Clean the label on the cell wih ethanol.
- Write the new label of the electrode and precise the side that you want to measure.
Cut the electrode¶
Checklist : Cutting tool, tweezer and your electrode labeled.
- Place the electrode on the cutting tool.
- Press the blades down to cut out the electrode strip.
- Collect the electrode strip with the tweezer.
- Check the edges of the strip are clean after cutting. The electrode strip should be 20mm wide.
- Repeat the cutting for two strips total.
Note
Keep track of which side of the electrode you want to measure!
Assemble the FIPT cell¶
Checklist : FIPT cell, tweezer, pipette, separator, electrolyte and 2 strips of electrode.
Warning
All orientation markers of the FIPT cell should point to top-left.
- Place the first strip orthogonal to the foam of the FIPT cell. Face up the side that you want to measure.
- Place one separator on the middle of the electrode strip in the FIPT cell gap.
- Check that separators sits stable in the center.
- Apply 300ul of electrolyte to the center of the separator.
- Place the second strip on the top of the separator, orthogonal to the first strip. Face down the side that you want to measure.
- Close the cell by adding the top.
- Check that the orientation markers are aligned.
- Mount the top clamp.
- Screw in the middle screw until the clutch of screw triggers (you will hear a click sound).
Run the measurement¶
- Attach 2 measurement wires to the strips of the electrode to connect the FIPT cell to an impedance analyzer.
- Set up the measurement.
- Carry out the FIPT measurement and determine the ionic resistance of your electrode.
- Note that a good graph looks like a hockey stick.
Note
To achieve reliable data, do a total of 3 measurements per sample
Analyze your data¶
A typical data set looks like this:
To see how to analyze your FIPT data using our fipt-analysis , watch our follow up video on our website