Electrotunable liquid sulfur microdroplets
Abstract
Manipulating liquids with tunable shape and optical functionalities in real time is important for electroactive flow devices and optoelectronic devices, but remains a great challenge. Here, we demonstrate electrotunable liquid sulfur microdroplets in an electrochemical cell. We observe electrowetting and merging of sulfur droplets under different potentiostatic conditions, and successfully control these processes via selective design of sulfiphilic/sulfiphobic substrates. Moreover, we employ the electrowetting phenomena to create a microlens based on the liquid sulfur microdroplets and tune its characteristics in real time through changing the shape of the liquid microdroplets in a fast, repeatable, and controlled manner. These studies demonstrate a powerful in situ optical battery platform for unraveling the complex reaction mechanism of sulfur chemistries and for exploring the rich material properties of the liquid sulfur, which shed light on the applications of liquid sulfur droplets in devices such as microlenses, and potentially other electrotunable and optoelectronic devices.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Moore Foundation; US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1619479
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1631628; OSTI ID: 1647089
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515; AC02-05CH11231; FA9550-17-1-0331
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Nature Communications
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Volume: 11 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Citation Formats
Zhou, Guangmin, Yang, Ankun, Wang, Yifei, Gao, Guoping, Pei, Allen, Yu, Xiaoyun, Zhu, Yangying, Zong, Linqi, Liu, Bofei, Xu, Jinwei, Liu, Nian, Zhang, Jinsong, Li, Yanxi, Wang, Lin-Wang, Hwang, Harold Y., Brongersma, Mark L., Chu, Steven, and Cui, Yi. Electrotunable liquid sulfur microdroplets. United Kingdom: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-14438-2.
Zhou, Guangmin, Yang, Ankun, Wang, Yifei, Gao, Guoping, Pei, Allen, Yu, Xiaoyun, Zhu, Yangying, Zong, Linqi, Liu, Bofei, Xu, Jinwei, Liu, Nian, Zhang, Jinsong, Li, Yanxi, Wang, Lin-Wang, Hwang, Harold Y., Brongersma, Mark L., Chu, Steven, & Cui, Yi. Electrotunable liquid sulfur microdroplets. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14438-2
Zhou, Guangmin, Yang, Ankun, Wang, Yifei, Gao, Guoping, Pei, Allen, Yu, Xiaoyun, Zhu, Yangying, Zong, Linqi, Liu, Bofei, Xu, Jinwei, Liu, Nian, Zhang, Jinsong, Li, Yanxi, Wang, Lin-Wang, Hwang, Harold Y., Brongersma, Mark L., Chu, Steven, and Cui, Yi. Thu .
"Electrotunable liquid sulfur microdroplets". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14438-2.
@article{osti_1619479,
title = {Electrotunable liquid sulfur microdroplets},
author = {Zhou, Guangmin and Yang, Ankun and Wang, Yifei and Gao, Guoping and Pei, Allen and Yu, Xiaoyun and Zhu, Yangying and Zong, Linqi and Liu, Bofei and Xu, Jinwei and Liu, Nian and Zhang, Jinsong and Li, Yanxi and Wang, Lin-Wang and Hwang, Harold Y. and Brongersma, Mark L. and Chu, Steven and Cui, Yi},
abstractNote = {Manipulating liquids with tunable shape and optical functionalities in real time is important for electroactive flow devices and optoelectronic devices, but remains a great challenge. Here, we demonstrate electrotunable liquid sulfur microdroplets in an electrochemical cell. We observe electrowetting and merging of sulfur droplets under different potentiostatic conditions, and successfully control these processes via selective design of sulfiphilic/sulfiphobic substrates. Moreover, we employ the electrowetting phenomena to create a microlens based on the liquid sulfur microdroplets and tune its characteristics in real time through changing the shape of the liquid microdroplets in a fast, repeatable, and controlled manner. These studies demonstrate a powerful in situ optical battery platform for unraveling the complex reaction mechanism of sulfur chemistries and for exploring the rich material properties of the liquid sulfur, which shed light on the applications of liquid sulfur droplets in devices such as microlenses, and potentially other electrotunable and optoelectronic devices.},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-14438-2},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 11,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {Thu Jan 30 00:00:00 EST 2020},
month = {Thu Jan 30 00:00:00 EST 2020}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14438-2
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14438-2
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Cited by: 22 works
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Figures / Tables:
Fig. 1: In situ observation of sulfur nucleation. a Schematic of the setup for the in situ optical observation. b Schematic of the assembled electrochemical device. c Free energy schematic showing the effects of increasing overpotential (η) on the energy barrier for sulfur nucleation. d Plot of sulfur droplet radiusmore »
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Figures / Tables found in this record:
Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.