Metal-organic frameworks It is a readily observed fact that the choice of solvent greatly influences the chemical reactivity at (electrified) solid/liquid interfaces, for example, in electrocatalytic or electrosynthetic reaction schemes. Yet, the molecular-level details about why and how solvent molecules affect or even direct the interaction of reagent species with catalyst or electrode surfaces, specifically on the spatial dimensions of individual molecules and/or reactive sites remain largely elusive to date. In cooperation with RU Bochum and MPI Polymer Research, we study how solvent molecules influence the adsorption geometry and resulting chemical reactivity of reagent molecules at electrochemical interfaces, for example for metal-organic framework surface functionalization.

_{Lalitha, A.; Sulpizi, M.; Andrienko, D.; Domke, Katrin F. 
Solvent hydrogen bonding determines adsorption geometry of trimesic acid on Cu
In: ChemRxiv, DOI 10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-6q79s}

Fuel cell membranes The organization of water in proton or anion exchange membranes determines to a large extent the performance of fuel cells, affecting both ion transport and catalytic efficiency. Thus, establishing the molecular properties, such as spatial arrangement and chemical interactions, of water in fuel cell membranes provides a physico-chemical basis for an improved understanding of device performance. With help of coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS), we quantify the water content inside membranes and visualize its distribution in 3D with (sub)micrometer resolution. The high sensitivity of CARS provides millisecond temporal resolution and thus allows us to directly monitor how membrane flooding and dehydration processes proceed.

_{Ling, Xiao; Bonn, Mischa; Domke*, Katrin F.; Parekh*, Sapun H.
Correlated interfacial water transport and proton conductivity in perfluorosulfonic acid membranes
In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), Vol. 116, 2019, Nr. 18, pp. 8715 – 8720
DOI (Open Access)}