BARD | Preface

Preface

A Letter from the Editors Dear Reader, Electrochemistry plays a dominant role in a vast number of research and applied areas. This is basically a consequence of a unique combination of different features of electrochemical reactions. By the application of a potential they can overcome kinetic limitations even at very low temperatures and are chemically and even stereochemically specific. This leads to applications to chemical synthesis. These are highly sensitive, even to extremely small amounts of reactants, leading to analytical applications. They may be limited to very specific and well-defined electrode surface areas with excellent temporal control, of importance in the emerging field of nanotechnology. Finally, electrochemical reactions are known for a wide range of materials such as metals, semiconductors, polymers, and biological systems. Thus electrochemistry currently plays a large role in a number of rather diverse areas, such as preparative chemistry, analytical chemistry, energy storage, energy conversion, biochemistry, solid state chemistry, materials science, and microelectronics. At the beginning of the last century, electrochemistry was mainly dominated by studies of the transport of charged species and thermodynamic considerations. With the pioneering work carried out by Butler, Volmer, Gerischer, Marcus, and others, kinetic aspects of electrochemistry have become more important in electrochemical research since the middle of the last century with an increased understanding of the chemical and electronic structure of the solid/solution interface. These studies have been accelerated by the application of numerous in-situ and ex-situ spectroscopic techniques, which have been combined with electrochemical experiments over the last thirty years. More recently the introduction of in-situ scanning probe techniques has allowed us to follow electrochemical reactions on an atomic or molecular scale. However, the most important development over the last few decades has been the spread of electrochemical concepts into very different areas of research and development. Based on theoretical and experimental results and methods gathered by electrochemists for many decades, electrochemistry is now used in many fundamental fields, such as the study of new organic and inorganic compounds and biological systems. In more applied areas, it is used to shape materials from the macroscopic to the microscopic scale, to accurately analyze for chemical impurities, to understand and prevent the corrosion of materials at low and extremely high temperatures, to probe the function of living cells, and to convert chemical energy into electricity. Thus scientists and engineers working in these diverse areas need to locate and use electrochemical information. It is the specific aim of this encyclopedia to fill this need and to provide an up-to-date electrochemical source for engineers and scientists. It is also designed for use by students needing a starting point in their search for reliable information. The Encyclopedia of Electrochemistry is organized into 10 volumes, which concentrate on the major areas of electrochemistry, each volume containing some 20 articles by experts. The articles are intended not only for electrochemists, but also for those in other fields who use electrochemistry and who are interested in a reference to improve their expertise. However, the EoE also includes the latest reviews of recent achievements in both fundamental and applied electrochemistry. The extensive cross-referencing between all volumes will allow users to deepen their knowledge to the extent defined by their needs. We hope that the EoE facilitates the broad use of electrochemistry in research and industry but also provides a basis for further progress in this highly interesting and fast moving area of science.