Testing Coffee With Current

Coffee is a key ingredient in the scientific process for many researchers, so it’s no wonder that researchers often develop an interest in the drink’s physics and chemistry. In a new study, a research team devised an objective method to test both a coffee’s strength and its roast color.

The researchers used a potentiostat to test how an electric current interacted with the brewed coffee and showed how the measurements related to the coffee’s flavor. The method was even robust enough that they could identify which coffee sample came from a batch of beans that had failed a roaster’s quality controls.

While you’re unlikely to use such a method at home, it could be helpful in coffee shops, where baristas try to pin down the variables to produce the same flavor in every cup. (Image credit: M. Kenneally; research credit: R. Bumbaugh et al.; via Ars Technica)

New publication:
"Selective Electrochemical Defluorinative Hydroxymethylation toward Difluoro-Substituted Alcohol Building Blocks"
Remember those CF₃ groups people put on their molecules to modify electron densities on aromatic rings? Now you can make alcohols out of them later.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.orglett.6c01339
#Chemistry #science #academia #electrochemistry #openaccess

It's hard to pull Mg out of seawater, and we know that minerals with it, like dolomite, form along a redox profile. But why?
We decided to look at it a bit differently - with electrochemistry!
What we think is going on is a process called “proton-driven cation pumping,” which pulls out the Mg and pushes it (and Ca) into the mineral phase, driven by the electrical potential gradient.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2026.05.034

#Electrochemistry #Dolomite #Redox

Lab Notebook Entry #18

Designed static frames for flooded cells, started first all-Fe test, Zn-I dev kit probably needs to be remade

https://dualpower.supply/posts/lab-notebook-18/

#academia #OpenScience #Quarto #batteries #EnergyStorage #energy #science #electrochemistry #OpenSource #OpenSourceHardware

Lab Notebook Entry #17

Another Zn-I test, started off cycling too aggressively and formed iodine it seems

https://dualpower.supply/posts/lab-notebook-17/

#academia #OpenScience #Quarto #batteries #EnergyStorage #energy #science #electrochemistry

🏆 Congratulations to Rivin George, who has received the Best Poster in Science Award at the Open Doctoral Days 2026 (@ujiuniversitat).

🔬 His poster presentation, titled “𝗚𝗹𝘂𝗰𝗼𝘀𝗲-𝘁𝗼-𝗚𝗹𝘂𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗰𝗶𝗱 𝘃𝗶𝗮 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗢𝘅𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻”, was recognised for its scientific quality and contribution in the field of sustainable chemical processes.

Congratulations, Rivin! 👏

#INAM #SomUJI #CiènciaUJI #OpenDoctoralDays #Research #Sustainability #Electrochemistry

The video 🎥 of the #BeilsteinTalk “Implications and applications of local pH in #electrocatalysis” with Samuel S. Veroneau, University of Pennsylvania 🇺🇸, is NOW available 🔓 in the video portal @TIB_AVPortal of the @tibhannover.

🔗 https://av.tib.eu/media/73016

#electrochemistry #BeilsteinTalks

Direct electrochemical black coffee quality appraisal using cyclic voltammetry

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-71526-5

#HackerNews #electrochemistry #coffee #quality #cyclicvoltammetry #research #science