A new graphic designed by lab manager Anna Sawulska and Postdoctoral Associate Alain Boldini has been selected as the frontispiece of the latest issue of journal Advanced Materials Interfaces.
The picture illustrates our team’s new research outlined in the same issue of the journal. Alain Boldini, Prof. Maurizio Porfiri, visiting student Nicco Ulbricht, and Profs. Chulsung Bae and Thomas Wallmersperger demonstrate the first use of anion-exchange membranes as contactless actuators in salt solution. An external, imposed electric field (white lines) pushes anions from the solution (green atoms) into the membrane, along with their hydration shells (red-white water molecules). Water inflates the cathode side of the membrane, which then bends toward the anode.
Read the paper “Solvation-Driven Actuation of Anion-Exchange Membranes” here.
Image credit: Anna Sawulska and Alain Boldini.