Location: Presented via Zoom: 828.685.7838; the video will be shown in EER 3.646
Sponsor: Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) Materials for Water and Energy Systems (M-WET)
Title: Molecular Insight into Ion Transport in Nanoconfined Electrolyte Solutions
Abstract
Ion transport through nanoscale pores and channels is an essential process in a range of both natural and engineered systems, from supercapacitor electrodes and desalination membranes to transmembrane proteins. Our fundamental understanding of nanoconfined electrolytes, however, lags far behind that of bulk electrolytes. Herein, we explore the transport properties of a prototypical nanoconfined electrolyte using machine learning-based molecular dynamics simulations. The ML potentials driving these simulations allow us to reach density functional theory-level accuracy at orders of magnitude lower cost than conventional ab initio molecular dynamics.
Citations for talk:
KD Fong, CP Grey, A Michaelides. "On the physical origins of reduced ionic conductivity in nanoconfined electrolytes." ACS Nano 19.13 (2025): 13191–13201.
KD Fong, B Sumic, N O’Neill, C Schran, CP Grey, A Michaelides. “The interplay of solvation and polarization effects on ion pairing in nanoconfined electrolytes.” Nano Letters 24.16 (2024): 5024-5030.
Bio
Kara Fong is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. She received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 2016, followed by an MPhil in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her postdoctoral work as a Schmidt Science Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her research integrates molecular simulation and theory to understand transport and thermodynamics in sustainable electrochemical systems.