Electrotunable liquid sulfur microdroplets

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 electrowettin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2020-01, Vol.11 (1), p.606-606, Article 606
Main Authors: 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
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
132/122
639/624/399
639/638/161
639/638/298
Devices
Droplets
Electrochemical cells
Electrochemistry
Humanities and Social Sciences
Liquids
Material properties
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Microlenses
multidisciplinary
Optoelectronic devices
Organic chemistry
Reaction mechanisms
Real time
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Substrates
Sulfur
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Summary: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. Manipulating liquids with tunable shape and optical functionalities in real time remains a great challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate electrotunable liquid sulfur microdroplets in an electrochemical cell and tune its characteristics in a fast, repeatable, and controlled manner.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-14438-2