About
Alex Neale is a Lecturer in Chemistry and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow with research focussing on combined electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques to understand electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis and battery chemistry.
Alex graduated with a First Class MChem (Hons) Chemistry degree from the University of Liverpool in 2013. He then moved to Northern Ireland to complete a PhD with Professor Johan Jacquemin and Professor Christopher Hardacre at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and partnered with Johnson Matthew, Jaguar Land Rover, and University of Liverpool in an Innovate UK consortium. His PhD research explored the electrochemical and thermophysical properties and application of ionic liquid-based electrolyte materials for lithium-air battery and electrochemical capacitor applications.
After completing his PhD studies, Alex returned to the University of Liverpool to begin working with Professor Laurence Hardwick in the Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy in the Department of Chemistry. During this time, Alex's research interests concern applying electrochemical and advanced in-situ/operando spectroscopic techniques to understand interfacial reaction/degradation mechanisms across a range of battery and electrochemical energy storage fields, Li-ion batteries and beyond Li-ion technologies like metal-O2, solid-state, and organic battery chemistries. This research has involved connections with UK and European partners through involvements with the Faraday Institution projects (Degradation, SOL-BAT, CAT-MAT) and the EU BIG-MAP project. Alex has supported the development of new advanced characterisation techniques, such as operando Kerr-gated Raman spectroscopy and Surface Enhanced Infrared Absorbance Spectroscopy (SEIRAS) to probe electrified interfaces, supporting this with in the design and fabrication of operando optical and spectroelectrochemical cell equipment. Alex’s research also involves the development of automated robotic workflows for the synthesis of inorganic coatings on battery electrode materials to improve cell cycle life.
Prizes or Honours
- Best poster prize at the SIRE 10 Year Anniversary Event (SIRE 10 Year Anniversary Event sponsors, 2023)
- Travel Award for Young Electrochemists (International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), 2020)
- 1st place Poster Prize at the 5th International Spectroelectrochemistry Summer School (Centre of Spectroelectrochemistry, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, Dresden, 2019)