Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 1, 2026

Ion-Exchange Membranes for the Fabrication of Reverse Electrodialysis Device
Published on: July 20, 2021
Charge regulation radically modifies electrostatics in membrane stacks
Arghya Majee1,2, Markus Bier1,2,3, Ralf Blossey4
1Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme, Heisenbergstr. 3, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
Abstract:
Motivated by biological membrane-containing organelles in plants and photosynthetic bacteria, we study charge regulation in a model membrane stack. Considering (de)protonation as the simplest mechanism of charge equilibration between the membranes and with the bathing environment, we uncover a symmetry-broken charge state in the stack with a quasiperiodic effective charge sequence. In the case of a monovalent bathing salt solution our model predicts complex, inhomogeneous charge equilibria depending on the strength of the (de)protonation reaction, salt concentration, and membrane size. Our results shed light on the basic reorganization mechanism of thylakoid membrane stacks.
Related Concept Videos
Dielectric Polarization in a Capacitor
Potentiometry: Membrane Electrodes
Gauss's Law in Dielectrics
MOS Capacitor
The metal gate is typically made from highly conductive materials such as aluminum or polysilicon. Beneath the metal gate lies a thin layer of...
The Resting Membrane Potential
Electric Field of a Charged Disk
The system's symmetry is in the cylindrical directions across the plane of the charge. As a result, the electric fields created by various surface charge elements nullify each other in the direction parallel to the surface. Thereby, the resulting electric field is perpendicular to the plane. Since the disk is...

