Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory
(Left to right) Wattaka Sitaputra, Feng Wang, James Wishart, Jerzy Sadowski, and Dario Stacchiola demonstrated a new method for studying ionic liquids at electrode interfaces in real time. Sitaputra, Sadowski, and Stacchiola used the electron microscope pictured above at Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials to observe how the ions in a particular liquid move and rearrange as voltage is applied to gold electrodes. The box that Sitaputra is holding contains the photolithography mask that he used to fabricate the electrodes, and Stacchiola is holding a tray with sample holders for the microscope. Wishart of Brookhaven's Chemistry Division contributed his expertise in ionic liquids; Wang, a physicist in Brookhaven's Sustainable Energy Technologies Division and an expert in energy storage systems, helped perform electrochemical measurements.