Sustainability Week at QMUL – October 2021

This week has been Sustainability Week at QMUL and we have organised lab tours to show students and staff how we process lignin, a biomass waste product from the paper industry into advanced materials for energy storage, in particular for redox flow batteries. Thanks all the could make it! You were very engaging. And thanks Gengyu and Michael for helping make this event happen!

Welcome Michael!

Welcome to Dr Michael Thielke who has joined the team as a postdoctoral researcher to develop sustainable fibres as electrodes for flow batteries using electrospinning as part of Ana’s UKRI FLF.

Welcome Michael! I hope you have a great time at QMUL and we look forward to doing lots of science together.

New paper in collaboration with Prof Krause – March 2021

Photoelectrochemical imaging system with high spatiotemporal resolution for visualizing dynamic cellular responses

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical imaging has great potential in the label-free investigation of cellular processes. Herein, we report a new fast photoelectrochemical imaging system (PEIS) for DC photocurrent imaging of live cells, which combines high speed with excellent lateral resolution and high photocurrent stability, which are all crucial for studying dynamic cellular processes. An analog micromirror was adopted to raster the sensor substrate, enabling high-speed imaging. α-Fe2O3 (hematite) thin films synthesized via electrodeposition were used as a robust substrate with high photocurrent and good spatial resolution. The capabilities of this system were demonstrated by monitoring cell responses to permeabilization with Triton X-100. The ability to carry out dynamic functional imaging of multiple cells simultaneously provides improved confidence in the data than could be achieved with the slower electrochemical single-cell imaging techniques described previously. When monitoring pH changes, the PEIS can achieve frame rates of 8 frames per second.