Electrochemistry, past, present, and future: energy conversion, sensors, and beyond
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FEATURE ARTICLE
Electrochemistry, past, present, and future: energy conversion, sensors, and beyond José H. Zagal 1 Received: 1 June 2020 / Revised: 3 June 2020 / Accepted: 3 June 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
I am grateful to Editor Fritz Scholz for the invitation to write an article about future tasks in electrochemistry. It is a great challenge to write about the future of electrochemical research and innovation since it is sometimes very difficult to predict the future. On several occasions, famous people have made completely wrong predictions about the future. As an example, Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM, declared in 1943 “I think there is world market for maybe five computers” [1]. Lord Kelvin stated in 1895 that “I can state flatly that heavier than air flying machines are impossible” [2]. This pessimistic opinion was shared by Edison, Beaumont, Melville, and Newcomb. Lord Haldane declared: “The aeroplane will never fly” [2] even though well before the 1800’s Leonardo da Vinci drew some blueprints of airplanes and helicopters in 1505. There is a long history of failed predictions. The opposite seems to be true for science fiction. For example, and related to electrochemistry, Jules Verne described in 1869 in “Twenty thousand leagues under the sea” a submarine Nautilus that was powered by electricity (batteries) and in “The mysterious island” in 1875 predicted the use of electrolytic hydrogen as a fuel as is stated in that novel: “yes, but water decomposed into its primitive elements, replied Cyrus Harding, and decomposed doubtless by electricity”, and then comes Jules Verne’s prediction of the manned expedition to the moon and so on. Verne lived in an era of great discoveries and even though he was not a scientist he was smart enough to realize the profound changes these discoveries were to bring to our civilization. The basis for most of the principles of discoveries related to electrochemistry essentially has not changed since the 1800’s. The principle of the battery discovered by Alessandro Volta in 1800 remains the
* José H. Zagal [email protected] 1
Laboratorio de Electrocatálisis y Electrónica Molecular, Departamento de Química de los Materiales, Facultad de Química y Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Ada. Bernardo O’Higgins 3363, 9170022 Santiago, Chile
same. The fuel cell discovery by Christian Schönbein [3] and shortly after by Sir William Grove 1839 [4] up to now, the concept remains essentially the same. However, dramatic changes have taken place ever since concerning the electrode materials, and this is the future research aimed to: to develop new materials, maybe intelligent materials [5] that will make batteries and fuel cells more efficient, durable with high energy densities. This requires deep understanding of the properties needed for achieving high performance in electrochemical energy conversion. In situ techniques that can monitor structural changes of electrode materials under operando conditions need to be developed or improved.
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