Development of Innovative Test Bed Fixture in Measuring Air Cathode Membrane Film Thickness

E-ZINC的技术是能源储存领域的一次范式转变。位于加拿大多伦多的e-Zinc公司开发了一项突破性的电化学技术，用于在金属锌中储存能量。该公司正寻求通过扩大其新型锌空气电池的同类最佳电极的制造来继续这项工作。兰伯顿学院和e-ZINC已经成功地自动化了电导率测量的数据收集，建立了一个数据采集单元，一旦将样本手动加载到夹具中，该单元就会自动进行样本测量，并将其输出为易于处理的格式。然而，目前的方法需要时间来加载样品，以确保夹具在样品表面施加均匀的压力。E-ZINC有兴趣与兰伯顿学院合作，为这个问题找到解决方案，并设计一种测试平台夹具来测量空气阴极薄膜厚度。不幸的是，目前还没有现成的解决方案来解决这个问题；因此，需要继续进行研究、原型制作和测试。这项合作研究的下一阶段对于在2023年底部署电子锌空气阴极试验线至关重要。该项目的结果将为e-锌公司提供改进的工艺，并为e-锌公司的空气阴极生产质量控制计划增加额外的能力，进一步加强电极的质量控制。预计该项目的结果将导致设立全职就业职位，因为e-ZINC将能够全面运作。最后，e-Zinc的储能解决方案将提供显著的环境效益，如降低化石燃料消耗和显著减少温室气体排放。

e-Zinc's technology is a paradigm shift in energy storage. Located in Toronto, Canada, e-Zinc has developed a breakthrough electrochemical technology for storing energy in zinc metal. The company is looking to continue this work by scaling up the manufacturing of a best-in-class electrode for its novel zinc-air battery. Lambton College and e-Zinc have successfully automated the data collection of the conductivity measurements, building a data acquisition unit that automatically takes sample measurements once a sample is manually loaded in the fixture and outputting it into an easily processable format. However, the current method requires time to load the sample, ensuring the fixture applies even pressure across the sample surface. e-Zinc is interested in collaborating with Lambton College to uncover a solution to this issue and design a test bed fixture to measure air cathode membrane film thickness. Unfortunately, there is currently no off-the-shelf solution for this problem; thus, continued research, prototyping, and testing are needed. The next phase of this collaborative research is essential to deploying the e-Zinc Air Cathode Pilot Line in late 2023. The results from this project will provide e-Zinc with an improved process and add additional capabilities to e-Zinc's quality control program for air cathode production, further enhancing the electrode's quality control. It is anticipated that the results from this project will lead to the creation of full-time employment positions as e-Zinc will be able to establish a full-scale operation. Finally, e-Zinc's energy storage solution will provide significant environmental benefits, such as lowering fossil fuel consumption and significantly reducing GHG emissions.