Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry

The first chapter in the present volume takes up a well-known theme in modern context: the ideas concerning non-Stokesian mechanisms of ion transport. We are happy that one of the great pioneers of modern electrochemistry, T. Erdey-Gniz, in collaboration with S. Lengyel, has consented to write this article for us. Along with it is a solution-oriented article in spectroscopic vein, namely, that by A. Covington and K. E. Newman on the analysis of solution constituents by means of nuclear magnetic resonance studies. Progress in the electrochemistry of the double layer has perked up, and the advances have been triggered from critical experiments, one showing that fluoride ions are specifically adsorbed, and the other showing that the position of maximum disorder of the water molecules occurs at a charge opposite to that needed for interpreta tions of capacitance humps in terms of water molecules. M. A. Habib, who has contributed to the theory in this area, reviews the con sequences of these changes in information. The rise in the price of energy toward a situation in which sources other than the fossil fuels become economical implies much for the fuel cell and electrocatalysis. It has long been known that electrocatalysis in real situations was more than a consideration of exchange current densities, and a gap remains in the formulation of the theory of supports for such catalysts, although Boudart has stressed so much the vital nature of them. P. Stonehart and K. A. Kinoshita describe progress in this area.