Background

Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, B.A. Chemical Engineering (2012)
Purdue University, Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2013 - present)

Experience

• Purdue University, Graduate Research Assistant under Jeff Greeley (2013 - Present)
• Argonne National Laboratory, Research Assistant (2011 – 2013)
• University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Teaching Assistant (2010 – 2012)

Awards

• Andrew’s Fellowship, Purdue University (2013)

Project Description

Our group utilizes Density Functional Theory (DFT) to model and make suggestions to improve various chemical processes, ranging from catalysis and electrochemistry to batteries. In general, my main interests lie in solving the energy crisis that our country is facing, and this group is well situated in providing key answers to this dilemma. Currently, I am using DFT to model the kinetics that occur at the electrode interfaces for fuel cells applications. Fuel cells are presently not being used to any wide degree due to many stability problems and various expensive components. With the help of DFT, we hope to isolate alternatives that will make the use of fuel cells more common place.

In addition to the work at Purdue, I also looked into lithium-ion systems during my tenure at Argonne National Laboratory. I had multiple projects including battery scale up, improving the stability of silicon electrodes and also developed programs to improve and speed up data processing.

Publications and Presentations

• S. Trask, Y. Li, J. Kubal, M. Bettge, B. Polzin, Y. Zhu, A. Jansen, D.P. Abraham. “From coin cells to 400 mAh pouch cells: Enhancing performance of high-capacity lithium-ion cells via modifications in electrode constitution and fabrication” Journal of Power Sources (Accepted).