Eva Allen

Eva M. Allen is a materials scientist specializing in lithium-ion battery recycling and material synthesis, advancing sustainable energy storage solutions through innovative research and scale-up processes.

Biography

Highlights

Eva Allen is a materials scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, focusing on lithium-ion battery recycling and sustainable cathode material development. After earning her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry, she has worked at the forefront of battery recycling technologies.

Her current research aims to renew recycled cathode materials for second-use applications, contributing to more efficient and greener energy solutions. Allen has deep expertise in advanced synchrotron imaging and electrochemical testing, and her work is vital to the future of electric vehicles and sustainable energy storage.

“Process scale is complicated and among the highest-risk aspects of bringing a lab bench discovery to the manufacturing scale. Finding the best path for that process can be a puzzle. I enjoy designing processes and building equipment to solve these challenges.” — Argonne Materials Scientist Eva Allen

Research Focus

Allen specializes in developing and recycling cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries, mainly focusing on improving their energy density, sustainability, and recycling efficiency. Her work spans advanced imaging, electrochemical testing, and scaling up battery materials from lab to industrial settings.

Impact

Allen’s work contributes directly to the future of electric vehicles and sustainable energy by developing greener processes to recycle battery materials. This helps reduce waste from end-of-life batteries and supports the production of new, high-performance batteries, both crucial for the growing demand in the EV industry.

Eva Allen’s career began with an interest in clean energy, leading her to develop her expertise in battery recycling and materials science. While pursuing her Ph.D., Allen designed and built a reactor to create high-performance cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

Her experience spans multiple technologies, including advanced imaging techniques and deep learning, which she used to analyze the structural and chemical changes in battery materials.

Allen did her Ph.D. work in inorganic chemistry at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), in Jordi Cabana’s Research group. Before pursuing her Ph.D., 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.

During her Ph.D., 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 worked in the Cell Analysis, Modeling, and Prototyping (CAMP) Facility at Argonne, gaining experience in advanced cell development and electrochemical testing procedures.

Allen’s background also includes music studies, which have allowed her to draw interesting parallels between music practice and her research. Both disciplines rely on accepted principles and learning while including a creative process that enables the creation of something new.

After graduating from UIC, Allen became a postdoc at Argonne in the ReCell Center, focused on recycling Li-ion batteries. Appointed as a materials scientist at the laboratory in January 2024, 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.

At Argonne, Allen shifted her focus toward recycling end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, a critical challenge as the electric vehicle industry rapidly expands. She develops greener, cost-effective methods to renew recycled battery materials, aiming to recover and reuse precious resources on an industrial scale.

Allen’s work impacts the future of sustainable energy, helping lend stability and growth to electric vehicles while reducing the environmental impact of battery waste. Through her collaborations with industry and other national laboratories, she continues to push the boundaries, creating more efficient, scalable solutions for a cleaner energy future.

Read the latest Argonne news about Eva Allen:

Seven Argonne National Laboratory mentees win gold at DuPage County ACT-SO competition

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Experts from Argonne and Fermilab celebrate the science behind “The Marvels” with a movie screening and panel discussion

Education

Postdoctoral Training - Argonne National Laboratory (2023)
Ph.D. in Inorganic/Materials Chemistry - University of Illinois (2022)
B.S. in Chemistry - North Central College (2015)

Honors and Awards

Impact Argonne Award for notable achievement through DEIA - Argonne National Laboratory (2024)
Launchpad Program ‐ Cohort 8 - Argonne National Laboratory (2023 - 2024)
470 hours of awarded experimental beamtime at the APS and NSLS‐II - ANL and BNL (2017 - 2023)
Outreach Mentor, Afro‐Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics - Argonne National Laboratory (2022 - 2023)
Iota Sigma Pi, National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry - Chicago, IL (2022)
NSF Supplemental INTERN Grant - National Science Foundation (NSF) (2019 - 2021)
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Internship - Department of Energy (2020)
Outstanding Teaching Assistant - University of Illinois at Chicago (2018)
On the Spot Safety & Quality Contributions - Argonne National Laboratory (2016)
Norman and Rose Lewis Endowed Scholarship - North Central College (2012 - 2015)
Jazz Vibraphone and Concert Percussion Scholarships - North Central College (2011 - 2015)

“I value the chance to mentor young students and ensure they feel they have a direct hand in guiding the research. Having my contributions valued early in my career was impactful, and I enjoy doing the same for the next generation of researchers.” — Argonne Materials Scientist Eva Allen

Select 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

Patents

E. Allen, A. Lipson, A.H.M.G. Hyder (Co‐inventor) Li‐RECOVERY THROUGH REVERSiBLE GREEN PRECiPiTATiON, IN‐23‐093 IPDG Meeting August 8, 2023
E. Allen, A. Lipson, J. Macholz (Co‐inventor) METHOD FOR ADJUSTiNG THE TRANSITION METAL COMPOSITION OF A LITHiUM TRANSITION METAL OXiDE MATERiAL Provisional Patent 18/647,334 April 2024