Biography
Dr. Eva M. Allen did her PhD work in inorganic chemistry at the University of Illinois Chicago in Dr. Jordi Cabana’s Research group. Before pursuing her PhD, Dr. Allen began her career at Argonne National Laboratory in 2015 as a research assistant working on the pre-pilot synthesis of cathode materials at the Materials Engineering Research Facility (MERF). During her PhD, she designed and built a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) to synthesize core-shell cathode materials with enhanced capacity retention and cyclability using coprecipitation. She has experience in advanced imaging techniques using synchrotron sources, including transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) tomography. In this work, she developed methods of quantifying three-dimensional morphology and elemental distribution changes in cathode materials using deep learning techniques. In addition, she has held an appointment at the Cell Analysis, Modeling, and Prototyping (CAMP) Facility at ANL, gaining experience in advanced cell development and electrochemical testing procedures.
Since graduating from UIC, Dr. Allen is now a postdoc at the ReCell Center focused on recycling Li-ion batteries. She is currently developing synthetic methods to renew and increase the capacity of directly recycled cathodes for second-use applications. Additionally, she is exploring the effects of impurities on the synthesis and performance of cathode materials made from recycled metal salts.
Selected Publications:
- Allen, E.; Shin, Y.; Judge, W.; Wolfman, M.; De Andrade, V.; Cologna, S. M.; Cabana, J. 3D Quantification of Elemental Gradients within Heterostructured Particles of Battery Cathodes. ACS Energy Lett. 2023, 8 (3), 1371–1378. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.2c02619.
- Allen, E.; Lim, L. Y.; Xiao, X.; Liu, A.; Toney, M. F.; Cabana, J.; Nelson Weker, J. Spatial Quantification of Microstructural Degradation during Fast Charge in 18650 Lithium-Ion Batteries through Operando X-Ray Microtomography and Euclidean Distance Mapping. ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2022, 5 (10), 12798–12808. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.2c02397