Waters Corporation has unveiled a new analytical system aimed at reshaping how battery safety is tested and understood. 

 

The company announced the launch of its TA Instruments Coin Cell Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC), designed to deliver faster, more integrated insights into battery thermal behavior, gas evolution, and electrochemical performance.

 

The system is built for one core shift in workflow: testing intact coin cells without tearing them apart. By removing cell teardown, the platform cuts sample preparation time by more than 90%, while preserving the cell’s integrity for more realistic results.

 

At the heart of the technology is a multidimensional measurement approach that combines heat flow, evolved gas analysis, and electrochemical data in a single experiment. 

 

With built-in voltage monitoring and charge/discharge capability, researchers can directly link thermal activity with electrochemical behavior—an advance aimed at spotting early signals of thermal runaway and battery failure.

 

"The Coin Cell DSC represents a significant advancement in battery thermal analysis," said Yu Cheng, Vice President, Research and Development and Product Solutions, Materials Sciences, Waters Corporation. 

 

"Simultaneously capturing thermal, evolved gas, and electrochemical data is not only faster, but also correlates data from the same sample for more exacting insights earlier in development. With its broad temperature range and streamlined workflows, the system is designed to reduce experimental complexity while outperforming current approaches."

 

The platform also extends compatibility with advanced gas analysis tools, including MS, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), enabling deeper insight into off-gas composition during battery testing.

 

Temperature capability is another headline feature. The instrument spans an industry-leading range from –80 °C to 600 °C, supporting both low- and high-temperature battery behavior studies relevant to development and quality control.

 

"The battery industry has long needed a solution that bridges the gap between materials thermal analysis and full-cell DSC testing. This technology enables the evaluation of full-cell thermal stability by incorporating gas analysis and electrochemical data—capabilities that are essential for advancing early-stage battery safety research," said Shirley Meng, Professor, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago and Director, Energy Storage Research Alliance (ESRA).

 

Traditional safety testing methods such as accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC) typically arrive late in development cycles, require large cell formats, and depend on specialized infrastructure. Waters positions the Coin Cell DSC as a faster, earlier-stage alternative that can reduce risk and shorten development timelines.