Prospects of heavy flavor physics at ALICE using the electromagnetic calorimeter

The ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider is designed to study QCD matter created under extreme conditions in heavy ion collisions. Of particular interest is the characterization of the properties of the generated nuclear matter. The propagation and energy loss of heavy quarks through the dense medium have been shown at RHIC energies to provide valuable information on gluon densities and viscosity. ALICE will be able to study heavy quark production through both muons and electrons from semi-leptonic decay of heavy quarks. In particular, the ALICE Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCal) will enhance the ability to measure electrons at the transverse momenta where B-decays dominate the electron spectrum. Here we focus on the process of measuring and identifying electrons from b-quark decays with the ALICE EMCal and discuss the expected performance based on recent simulations.