Manchester researchers win grant to uncover water’s unusual electrical behavior in atom-thin channels

Water plays a part in processes from energy storage and electrochemistry to biological function, yet many of its electrical properties remain poorly understood, particularly near surfaces and under extreme confinement. Measuring them directly at the atomic scale has been a major experimental challenge. The project builds on the team’s earlier work, which developed a platform for confining water inside atomically thin channels and probing its electrical behavior with nanoscale precision. Those studies found that water confined to layers only one to two nanometers thick can show unusual electrical polarizability and exceptionally high conductivity compared with bulk water.

Researchers at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester have been awarded a £1.2 million (about US$1.6 million) Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Standard Research Grant to investigate the electrical properties of water and aqueous electrolytes confined to spaces just a few atoms thick. The three-year project, led by Dr. Laura Fumagalli, also involves Politecnico di Milano, the University of Cambridge and Oxford Instruments Asylum Research. The Manchester team includes co-investigators Professor Sir Andre Geim and Dr. Alessandro Principi.Water plays a part in processes from energy storage and electrochemistry to biological function, yet many of its electrical properties remain poorly understood, particularly near surfaces and under extreme confinement. Measuring them directly at the atomic scale has been a major experimental challenge. The project builds on the team’s earlier work, which developed a platform for confining water inside atomically thin channels and probing its electrical behavior with nanoscale precision. Those studies found that water confined to layers only one to two nanometers thick can show unusual electrical polarizability and exceptionally high conductivity compared with bulk water.

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