Materials science aspects of the research directions of electrochemistry
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FEATURE ARTICLE
Materials science aspects of the research directions of electrochemistry László Péter 1 Received: 20 February 2020 / Revised: 20 February 2020 / Accepted: 11 March 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This opinion article summarizes a few electrochemical research directions whose weight is likely to increase in the near future. Connection between materials science and electrochemistry is highly emphasized, while education is also considered as a key issue.
Electrochemistry proved to be an ever-expanding field since the discovery of the Volta column. The milestone list of the quantitative treatment of electrochemical phenomena includes the Faraday law that connects chemical quantity with charge, Tafel law that bridges (although somewhat heuristically) the current passing through an electrode and the electrode potential measured, and the description of the polarization curves as given by Erdey-Grúz and Volmer that defines the electrode potential (difference) as a driving force and the current as a consequence. The development of semiconductor-based devices ensured that, in accord with the contemplation that considers the electrode potential as the primary variable, potential-controlled experiments can be done. While the accuracy of the electronic control, the speed of the measurements and variety of methods improved significantly in the second half of the twentieth century; the digital control of the instrumentation was a significant step especially in the combination of methods and data acquisition related to electrochemical experiments. Of course, it would be an obscure idea to regard electrochemical instrumentation and methodology as being ready. However, their development is rather difficult to predict in the opinion of the author, and any new discovery will certainly be based on the coincidence of various factors, among which personal excellence is an important one. Instead, there are lots of foreseeable task items related to the materials science aspects of electrochemistry. The list to be given below can be derived both from a statistics of the
* László Péter [email protected] 1
Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Konkoly-Thege út 29-33, Budapest H-1121, Hungary
electrochemistry-related publications and social needs, the latter being equally related to industrial interests and environmental concerns. Being aware of the fact that such lists are always arbitrary, it hopefully offers a wide enough topical selection. Another reason for putting materials science to the forefront of the electrochemical research is the change of scientific funding in the twenty-first century. Methodologyoriented funding opportunities became more and more scarce, and the open calls tend to require a high social benefit. The latter can be fulfilled with production-motivated research where the benefit is obvious and can be realized within a short time after solving a problem, should the road to the solution require decades. In the opinion of the author, the following topics will attract much attention in the nea
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