5 Common Lab Problems in Battery Research? You Might Just Need the Right Product

Over the past three years, we've received feedback from countless researchers working on battery development and material evaluation. Many of them encountered recurring technical issues that impacted both experimental efficiency and data reliability.

Some of the most commonly reported problems include:

• Cell sealing failures
• Unstable testing results
• Poor electrode conductivity

   ⋯

These issues don't just waste time and materials—they can also delay the progress of your research and even lead to misjudgments in direction. Based on these insights, we've summarized five commonly overlooked but critical pain points in lab-scale battery research. For each, we’ve recommended suitable products that can help improve your workflow and boost experimental success.

Problem 1: Fragile Cell Components, Frequent Leakage, and Inefficient Reassembly

A frequent question we hear is: “Why does my Swagelok-type cell keep leaking, even though I assembled it correctly?”

While Swagelok-type cells are widely used due to their modular design and compatibility with various experiments, ensuring reliable performance and repeatability depends on more than just the basic structure. You need to consider tightness, pressure resistance, and ease of assembly—all at once.

That’s exactly what we prioritized when designing Swagelok Type Cell:

• We selected a combination of PTFE (Teflon) and stainless steel to ensure chemical stability, corrosion resistance, and pressure tolerance.
• The cell body features the threaded closures, significantly reducing the risk of leakage.
• Its structure is designed for quick and repeatable assembly, even inside gloveboxes or high-throughput testing environments

Its structure is designed for quick and repeatable assembly, even inside gloveboxes or high-throughput testing environments.

In addition, we designed a dedicated PTFE liner (Teflon Body) to enhance internal chemical compatibility, reducing unwanted side reactions between the electrolyte and metal surfaces. This added layer of protection is especially helpful in sensitive or highly reactive testing scenarios.

Problem 2: Uneven Electrode Cutting and Jagged Edges Affect Cell Assembly

Electrode disc cutting is one of the most common pain points we hear about from lab users.


Before placing an order, researchers often ask us these three key questions: 

• Does the cutter apply even pressure when pressed? 
• Are the disc edges smooth and free from burrs?
• Are the die sizes compatible with different coin cell formats?

And rightly so—if the cut edges are rough or uneven, they may compromise the sealing performance or even pose short-circuit risks. A truly well-designed handheld disc cutter should not only be accurate but also smooth, consistent, and easy to operate.

That’s why, when developing our Beyond Battery Disc Cutter, we focused on:

• High-precision die cutting to ensure smooth, clean, burr-free edges
• Smooth pressing mechanism for uniform pressure across various materials
• Quick-changeable die heads, supporting over 15 popular coin cell sizes (e.g., 10mm, 12mm, 16mm, 19mm)

Whether you're prototyping during early-stage research or performing high-volume prep work, this cutter delivers consistency and ease-of-use across tasks.

Problem 3: Separator Incompatibility, Poor Rate Performance, or Safety Concerns?

In any battery system, the separator plays a critical but often underestimated role in ensuring safety, performance, and long-term reliability.

An ideal separator should:

• Physically isolate the anode and cathode to prevent short circuits
• Provide consistent electrolyte wettability and ionic conductivity
• Remain dimensionally stable under high temperature and stress

But in practice, researchers often encounter issues that stem from separator mismatch or material limitations—leading to electrolyte incompatibility, poor high-rate performance, or mechanical failure.

Instead of choosing separators based solely on application categories, we’ve reorganized the options based on common problems researchers face during experiments, so you can better identify what type of separator suits your scenario:

Experimental Issue	Likely Cause	Recommended Separator	Key Advantages
Poor compatibility with electrolyte or electrodes	Insufficient wettability or chemical mismatch	PE Wet-Process Separator	Cost-effective, stable pore structure, good baseline compatibility
Shrinkage or leakage during high-temperature testing	Low thermal stability or dimensional distortion	Ceramic-Coated Separator	Excellent thermal resistance, prevents deformation
High internal resistance during high-rate tests	Separator too thick or poorly wetted	NKK-TF4425 Cellulose Separator	Ultra-thin, low ESR, ideal for high-rate or supercapacitor use
Short circuits or mechanical failure in sodium-ion systems	Weak mechanical strength or ion size mismatch	Celgard 2500 (Monolayer PP)	High mechanical strength, suitable for multiple chemistries

 

Problem 4: Poor Electrode Conductivity, Weak Rate/Cycle Performance?

If your battery cell performs well at low C-rates but suffers from sharp capacity drops during high-rate testing, the issue may not be as simple as the conductive additive.

Common causes include:

• Incomplete conductive network formation
• Excessive electrode thickness or improper compaction
• Low intrinsic electronic conductivity of the active material

That said, in most lab scenarios, the dispersion and distribution of the conductive additive still plays a major role.

We recommend C45 Conductive Carbon Black (TIMCAL), which has excellent surface area, particle distribution, and film-forming properties. It’s a trusted choice for lithium-ion slurries requiring low resistance and good rate stability—especially in fast-charging or high-power research.

However, choosing the best conductive additive alone isn’t always enough to improve performance—a weak or mismatched cathode material can still hold the system back.
 

To support this, we’ve listed a few examples below to help you identify suitable cathode materials based on different testing conditions:

Research Scenario	Recommended Cathode	Why It Works
Fast-charging / High-rate applications	NCM811 Powder	High electronic conductivity, suitable for rapid charge-discharge cycles
Experiments requiring long cycle life	LiFePO₄ P198-S13	Structurally stable, ideal for repeated cycling without performance loss
Tests focused on cost-effectiveness / stability	LiFePO₄ Aleees	Balanced rate performance, consistent particle size (D50 ≈ 1.3 μm)
Quick prototyping or coating experiments	Pre-coated LiFePO₄ Electrode Sheet	Factory-coated, ensures stable coating quality and saves preparation time

Problem 5: Low Anode Capacity, Poor Rate Performance, or Unstable Cycling?

While many researchers tend to focus more on cathode materials like NCM or LFP, it’s often the anode that becomes the real performance bottleneck—especially when it comes to fast charging, initial Coulombic efficiency, and long-term cycling stability.

That’s because the anode must not only store lithium ions effectively but also:

• Maintain structural integrity during charge/discharge
• Mitigate volume expansion
• Control side reactions that lead to SEI instability

Some of the common issues we hear from customers regarding anode materials include:

• Low initial Coulombic efficiency (frequent SEI formation)
• Poor fast-charging ability, even cell swelling

Accelerated capacity fade and polarization during cycling

In sodium-ion or lithium-sodium hybrid systems, the challenges grow even more complex due to the larger ionic radius of Na⁺, which demands highly tolerant material structures. To support more targeted anode selection, we’ve compiled the following list of Beyond Battery products based on specific use cases:

Suitable for	Key Features	Recommended Anode Material
High energy-density lithium-ion cells	Uniform particle size, highly graphitized	Graphite Powder -MCMB (Mesocarbon Microbeds)
High-capacity lithium-ion	Higher theoretical capacity than graphite	Silicon Oxide Powder- SL450A-SOC
Sodium-Ion, high-rate R&D	Bio-based, stable under low temp, long cycle life	Hard Carbon-Kuranode

In battery research, every single material, every component—no matter how small—plays a role in the stability of each experimental step. And when a single step becomes unstable, it can impact the entire outcome of your research

Scientific experiments are rarely linear or flawless. The real question isn’t if problems will arise—but when. That’s why we believe that choosing the right materials and tools from the beginning is one of the most effective ways to reduce trial-and-error, save time, and accelerate progress.

We hope that the five common lab issues and practical solutions we’ve shared in this article have sparked some ideas for your next project.


And if you're currently facing similar challenges in your lab, feel free to reach out to the Beyond Battery team—we’re always here to help you find the right path forward.