New experimental fundamental electrochemistry for the twenty-first century
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FEATURE ARTICLE
New experimental fundamental electrochemistry for the twenty-first century Allen J. Bard 1 Received: 25 May 2020 / Revised: 25 May 2020 / Accepted: 27 May 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Introduction Our task in these papers is to predict new research topics. These can be divided into two categories: fundamental “basic” research and technological research. The former is often called “curiosity-driven” research, where the goal is to discover new principles or answer standing questions, without the goal of addressing a societal need, which is the goal of technological research. Success in fundamental research is marked by answering an important question or discovering a new principle. The goal of technological research is to construct a device, often to be sold. From the very start of electrochemistry in around 1800, both types of research were of interest. The importance of things like the voltaic pile, the forerunner of the battery, and new approaches to new materials by electrosynthesis led to continued interest in electrochemical applications, such as energy storage, analytical sensors, electric vehicles, and solar energy. Note, however, that long-term developments of fundamental research are often of even more importance in technology. There are many examples, such as fundamental studies of radioactivity, followed by an understanding of nuclear reactions and later fission, which led to atomic energy. Similarly, fundamental studies of nuclear spin led to powerful nuclear magnetic resonance instruments for analysis and later to magnetic resonance imaging in medicine. Additionally, fundamental work at Bell Labs on semiconductor materials led to solid state electronics and solar photovoltaic cells, and research on DNA structure by Watson and Crick produced the double helix model and ultimately led to the genetics revolution.
* Allen J. Bard [email protected] 1
Department of Chemistry, Center for Electrochemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
What allows us to make important advances in our studies? In considering experimental studies, one benefits from significant improvements in instrumentation, computation, and materials purity. For example, Heyrovsky introduced instrumentation for taking current-potential curves, and the polarograph was one of the earliest analytical instruments that replaced chemical methods, like titration and gravimetry. Further advances introduced potentiostats, first based on vacuum tubes and later on solid state devices and integrated circuits. Later, digital computers produced even more powerful instruments. Computation methods also were important, developing from Laplace transform methods to digital simulations to even more powerful simulators and multiphysics software. All of these factors have led to better capabilities as described here. Indeed, things that seemed impossible when I was a student have become routine. For example, Raman spectroscopy with a xenon lamp was an insensitive technique and has
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