<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Dear Soft Matter & Complex Systems Colleagues and Friends,</font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">On Friday 20 December 2024 at 9:30 AM at the UW Faculty of Physics (Pasteura 5, Warsaw; room 1.40) we are hosting a seminar during which </font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><font face="HelveticaNeue" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><b>Dimitrius Khaladj</b></font><font face="HelveticaNeue" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><b> </b></font><font face="HelveticaNeue" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;">(</font><font face="HelveticaNeue">Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, USA)</font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">will give a talk</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><div><h2 style="margin: 6px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Electrochemical lithium separation from natural brines using non-equilibrium graphene-oxide liquid crystal</span></font></h2><h2 style="margin: 6px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><b style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><font face="HelveticaNeue" style="font-size: 12px;">Abstract</font></b></h2></div><div><font face="HelveticaNeue">Conventional methods for lithium extraction via evaporation pools or hard rock mining are environmentally consequential both locally and globally. To meet the demand for mineral components for lithium batteries while lessening the environmental impact, new technologies for 'direct' lithium extraction aim to selectively capture lithium from aqueous solution among a mélange of competing ionic species. In this work, we present a new concept for direct lithium extraction based on far-from-equilibrium transport of lithium through self-assembled percolating colloidal graphene oxide (GO) driven by AC Electric fields. We report that these self-assembled GO networks enhance ionic conductivity, actively transporting and selecting lithium without requiring extensive pre-treatment. We demonstrate that lithium transport far-from-equilibrium can be enhanced relative to competing cations due to its weaker specific interactions with the percolating GO network, resulting in high mobility. This runs counter to many conventional approaches to lithium extraction, which rely on high lithium selectivity but are implicitly limited by low binding/exchange turnover rates. We propose that enhancing lithium transport, rather than binding selectivity, may be key to high-rate direct lithium extraction from brine sources.</font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><br></div></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">We warmly welcome everyone to attend the talk and the Soft Matter Coffee Break after the seminar, held in room 2.63 (2nd floor).</font></div></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Maria Ekiel-Jeżewska</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Maciej Lisicki</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Piotr Szymczak</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Panagiotis Theodorakis</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Marek Trippenbach</font></div></div></div></body></html>