Electrocatalysis

Book excerpt: A comprehensive review of advances in one of today's most technologically important research fields. Spurred on by society's increasingly urgent demand for an inexpensive, environment-friendly alternative to the internal combustion engine, research into electrocatalytic fuel cells has yielded many exciting advances in the past few years. This rapid rate of progress, however, has created a daunting challenge for anyone attempting to track the important new trends in electrocatalysis by sorting through the huge and rapidly growing body of world literature in the field. Electrocatalysis was designed to save scientists hours of arduous legwork by providing an authoritative review of the most important recent advances in all technologically relevant aspects of electrocatalysis. Leading researchers from North America, Europe, and the Far East share what they know about an array of related topics, including: * Electrocatalysis of hydrogen and oxygen electrode reactions * Electrooxidation of small organic molecules * Design and synthesis of new electrocatalytic materials * The distribution and storage of hydrogen in metal hydrides * Hydrogenation of organic compounds as a means of hydrogen storage * Electron, ion, and atom transfer reactions * Influence of the double-layer structure on the rate of charge transfer * A unified theory of electron and ion transfer reactions at metal electrodes. Electrocatalysis is an indispensable working resource for electrochemists, chemical engineers, surface scientists, and materials scientists.