Electrocatalysis: Fundamentals and Applications

C. F. ZINOLA; M. E. MARTINS.; E. PASTOR TEJERA; N. PIMENTA NEVES

International Journal of Electrochemistry

Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Lugar: New York; Año: 2011 p. 1 - 2

2090-3529

Electrocatalysis is a special field in Electrochemistry that has gained a special growth after the late eighties due to the application of new hybrid techniques. However, most of the applications have run for academic purposes but not for technical uses in the industry. Nowadays, the application of new concepts of electrocatalysis for industrial electrochemical processes has appeared as a necessity and not only attracting attention for chemists but for engineers. Therefore, industrial electrocatalytic processes have only been presented in the literature from the chemical engineering point of view with few further electrochemical explanations and mainly during the late seventies. The design and preparation of an electrocatalyst (electrodes for technological uses) are based on new concepts such as a controlled surface roughness, atomic topographic profiles, defined catalytic centre sites, atomic rearrangements, and phase transitions in the course of the electrochemical reactions.