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Background
Becky was born in Burnley and studied her undergraduate Masters in Chemistry at Oxford University. Prior to joining UCL to commence her PhD programme, she betrayed her Lancashire routes to work in Sheffield for UK SME and sodium-ion battery technology developer Faradion Ltd as a battery scientist. She joined the Advanced Characterisation of Materials CDT at UCL and Imperial in September 2018, and works in both the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the EIL, investigating nanomanipulation of charged 2D materials and applications in various energy storage devices.
Research Summary
Since the first 2D material (one atom thick), graphene, was invented, researchers have been driven to isolate other 2D materials and explore their properties. 2D materials are excellent candidates for various areas of materials innovation, as their properties are often different and maybe be enhanced compared to the bulk layered material. Traditional preparation methods of 2D materials involve high energy input, and struggle to produce exclusively single atom thick high quality materials. A unique technique has been developed at UCL to drive gentle dissolution of layered materials, producing pristine, negatively charged 2D material sheets. This project seeks to explore the potential applications of these materials in energy storage devices with a focus on batteries. Current battery chemistries are limited by issues including degradation, and kinetics (how fast the processes within the battery occur). The grand aim of this project is to produce unique chemical systems, develop novel new materials, and explore innovative ways of incorporating 2D materials into electrodes for batteries and similar devices which outperform the chemistries currently available.
List of conferences attended
- STFC Batteries Early Career Researchers Conference 2019 (co-organised)
- NPL Materials for Green Energy Conference 2019
- Advanced Characterisation of Energy Storage Materials Workshop 2019