Photo Gallery of the Energy Storage Lab Facility and Equipment

SD Mines Energy Storage Laboratory

The lab is located in Room CM-186 in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, SDSM&T. The lab is setup to conduct research in electrochemical energy storage. It will be capable of doing analytical and electrochemical fabrication and testing. The work performed in the lab meets applicable federal and state environmental and safety laws and regulations. General capabilities of the lab are listed below:

An electrospinning machine
A planetary ball-milling machine
A high dispersion (~2,000 RPM) stand homogenizer to mix battery electrode slurry.
A benchtop size doctor-blade coater.
A roll calendar press that densifies the coated electrodes to their desired thicknesses.
An electrode cutter is used to quickly punch out electrode coupons to be used in coin cell fabrication and testing.
A coin cell crimper to fabricate coin cells.
160-channel battery tester (cycler) units. A desktop computer will be used to control and collect data for the battery tester units.
An electrochemical impedance spectrometer to analyze battery cell performance.
A double sized glove box with two pairs of gloves filled with Ar inert gas, <1ppm O2 and H2O, for battery cell fabrication and moisture sensitive chemical storage.
A temperature chamber capable of -70°C to 180°C. This temperature chamber will be used to test battery performance at various temperatures, including extreme cold and hot temperatures, for different application needs.
A fume hood for preparing electrode slurry coatings and handling chemicals.
A precision balance with four digits after decimal point is to be used for battery cell fabrication and chemical preparation.
Personal protective equipment including gloves, safety glasses, lab coats, etc. is available for lab operators.
We closely collaborate with faculties at SD Mines and have access to many state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, such as, SEM/EDX, STM, XRD, BET, Raman, FTIR, TGA, DSC, etc.