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Advanced Energy Innovations Lab

The AEIL facility at the University of Utah (Merrill Engineering Building) is a 434 ft2 lab stocked with equipment needed for battery, supercapacitor, microfluidics, and nanofabrication research, including:

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The lab was newly renovated in 2016.

University of Utah Nanofab

The Utah Nanofab is an interdisciplinary, shared laboratory with cleanroom fabrication (~18,000 ft2 clean facility) located in the Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology building (SMBB) at the University of Utah. Cleanroom facilities (completed in 2015) provide a class 100/1000/10,000 cleanroom environment, specialized materials handling, professional expertise and equipment necessary for micromachining, microfabrication, and nano-scale materials research.

University of Utah Electron Microscopy and Surface Analysis Lab

The Electron Microscopy and Surface Analysis Lab is a ~6,000 ft2 advanced microscopy and characterization facility at the University of Utah. Of particular note for our research in electrochemical energy storage and nanofabrication are the SAL’s:

  • Scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) (JEOL JEM 2800) for structure analysis at angstrom resolution and ultrafast (simultaneous) elemental analysis with nm resolution by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Wet and dry cell imaging of dynamic liquid (including electrochemistry) and gas-phase experiments is available with the Poseidon Select holder.
  • Poseidon Select holder for in-situ gas and liquid STEM experiments. 
  • Protochips Ex-Situ The ex-situ cell is a table-top electrochemistry cell that uses the same Poseidon E-chips as the in-situ cell, and is designed for refining experimental parameters prior to imaging experiments. Obtained by PI Warren on a University of Utah Research Instrumentation Fund Award.
  • Potentiostat (Gamry Reference 600). The Reference 600 is a high-performance potentiostat/galvanostat/ZRA designed for fast, low-current measurements. It is located near the JEOL JEM 2800 STEM for use with the Poseidon Select holder for in-situ electrochemical imaging experiments. Obtained by PI Warren on a University of Utah Research Instrumentation Fund Award.
  • Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM-FEG) (FEI Quanta 600) with X-ray microanalysis and grain orientation imaging (EDS/EBSD).
  • Focused Ion Beam Dual Beam Microscope (FEI Helios NanoLab 650): Scanning microscope with very high-resolution topographical imaging and etching capabilities (sub-nanometer resolution from 1 to 30 kV). Focused ion beam imaging has outstanding low kV operation and up to 65 nA beam current.
  • X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS) (Kratos Axis Ultra DLD) for measurement of surface chemical composition (~1-10 nm), bonding of surface species, and depth profile analysis up to ~100 nm depths. Kratos Axis Ultra capabilities also include Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), Ion scattering spectroscopy (ISS) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), all of which provide means to interrogate the surface chemical bonding and oxidation states in the top few monolayers of a material.
  • X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) (Philips PANalytical X’Pert) including data acquisition and analysis software. 

University of Utah Materials Characterization Lab

The Materials Characterization Lab (MCL) at the University of Utah is a research space devoted to materials testing. The MCL is located in the room 1325 of the Meldrum Civil Engineering Building, and maintains over 15 characterization instruments and tools, including: BET Surface Area and Pore Size Analyzer (Micromeritics Gemini V),  Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy (Varian 3100 Excalibur Series), UV-Vis-NIR spectrometer (Perkin Elmer Lambda 950), Mechanical/Universal Testing (UTM) (Instron 5969 Dual Column Tabletop Testing System), and several optical microscopes (Olympus BH2 Series System Microscope with UC50 5 Megapixel Digital Color Camera and Olympus VANOX Universal Research Microscope).

Minor equipment available at the MCL includes sample preparation tools such as grinding and mounting instruments.