2023-12-07

Our new study of caffeine appears on the cover of American Chemical Society's Journal of Physical Chemistry. Hofmeister laid out the foundation of ion-specific effects, but the underlying physical mechanisms have puzzled researchers for more than a century. Hand-in-hand, experiment and computer simulations show how the heavily consumed psychoactive drug caffeine is affected not only by the type of salt, illustrated on the cover by “ionic candy”, but critically on the concentration regimes of caffeine and electrolyte.