The Renaissance of Electrochemistry

The key massage of this lecture is that we are witnessing the renaissance of electrochemistry and that fundamental understanding of critical electrochemical processes at interfaces in aqueous and organic environments will provide ample opportunities (and challenges) to further improve the current landscape of sustainable energy production and utilization. Thus far, interfaces in aqueous and organic solutions have been studied by many groups, albeit usually as independent research areas. In this presentation we will discuss that this circumstance has led to an artificial partitioning of the two environments that under well-defined experimental conditions may, in fact, be governed by similar fundamental principles. For some specific processes, we show that activated-water may serve as unifying descriptor that can control both H⁺-O₂ and Li⁺-O₂ electrochemistry. We will conclude by asking us what we don’t know but we would like to know about electrochemical interfaces.