View from the lab: The Viper lab is leading the charge

08/5/2016 |

The Vilas Pol Energy Research (ViPER) Laboratory focuses on rechargeable energy storage technology and has had success creating battery components from such everyday things as pollen, packing peanuts, and mushrooms. Here, graduate research assistant Arthur Dysart prepares to perform X-ray powder diffraction, a powerful characterization technique to understand materials for next-generation energy storage. Established in January 2014 as a premier research laboratory in Purdue’s School of Chemical Engineering, ViPER lab is built with the highest quality, multi-functional instrumentation to develop and characterize materials for experimental rechargeable batteries, including lithium-ion, lithium-sulfur, and sodium-ion batteries. Research from ViPER lab is published in high impact academic journals and has been featured by the Public Broadcasting Service NOVA Series, ABC News, National Public Radio, USA Today, and Forbes Science. Current projects are supported by the Office of Naval Research and the Department of Energy.

– Kay Hagen

From the July/August issue of the Purdue Alumnus, http://bit.ly/2c8kp1U

Above: Photo by Michael Dick