Co-editor of Interface, Vijay Ramani, talks about open access publishing in this letter from the editor.

The following is an article from the latest issue of Interface by co-editor Vijay Ramani.

Late last year, I accepted the invitation to become co-editor of Interface safe in the knowledge that I would not actually be called upon to do anything for the foreseeable future.* Thanks to the outstanding ECS staff and conscientious guest editors and authors, this happy state of affairs has persisted until now. But just as “even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea,” so it is that the inevitable passage of time has brought upon a situation wherein actual effort is required on my part, viz. this editorial. The increasingly plaintive entreaties from our admirably patient Director of Publications seeking the contents of this column can no longer, in good conscience, be ignored or fobbed off with feeble excuses.

Read the rest.

Find openings in your area via the ECS job board.

ECS’s job board keeps you up-to-date with the latest career opportunities in electrochemical and solid-state science. Positions are constantly updated and employers have the ability to post openings free of charge.

Check out the latest openings that have been added to the board:

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Photoelectrochemical Materials
The University of Toledo – Toledo, Ohio
The Ohio’s Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization at The University of Toledo, Ohio invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship opportunity. The postdoctoral position is expected to conduct research in synthesis and characterization of oxide materials for the application of photoelectrochemical hydrogen production via water splitting. Candidates with strong background on solid state and/or wet chemical synthesis are highly preferred.

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Electrochemical Materials
Texas State University – San Marcos, Texas
The Postdoctoral position will involve conducting research in the synthesis and characterization of materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies.

ITRI-Rosenfield Postdoctoral Fellowship
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Berkeley, California
The Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory invites applications for a distinguished postdoctoral fellowship opportunity. The fellowship will allow an outstanding recent or upcoming Ph.D. recipient to engage in innovative research leading to new energy efficiency technologies or policies and reduction of adverse energy-related environmental impacts. The successful applicant will serve a one-year term appointment with the possibility of a one-year renewal.

Websites of Note are gathered by Zoltan Nagy.

This is the latest Websites of Note, a regular feature in the ECS magazine Interface researched by Zoltan Nagy, a semi-retired electrochemist.

Lecture Notes in Electrochemistry/Electrochemical Engineering – M. Bazant, MIT
Detailed course material from MIT, including: equivalent circuit models, thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, transport phenomena, electrostatics, electrokinetics, porous media, and phase transformations.

Electroforming — a Unique Metal Fabrication Process – R. Parkinson, Nickel Development Institute
Electroforming plays an important role in our daily lives. We have contact with its results many times each day and it greatly enhances our lifestyle in a variety of ways. In addition, it is an extremely versatile process. For instance, it is used to produce micro components for the medical and electronics industries and huge components for the aircraft and aerospace industries. For many applications it has become indispensable.

Electrochemical Machining of Metal Plates – J.F. Cooper and M.C. Evans, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Technical basis of electrochemical machining. Experimental basis of electrochemical machining. Theoretical basis of current distribution. Experimental tests and results (stationary cathode, advancing cathode, rotating cathode). Interpretations of results. Implementation of the process.

Electropolishing of Stainless Steels – Kosmač, Euro Inox
Electropolishing is a chemical surface finishing technique, by which metal is electrolytically removed, ion by ion, from the surface of a metal object. The primary objective is to minimize microroughness, thus dramatically reducing the risk of dirt or product residues adhering and improving the cleanability of surfaces. Electropolishing is also used for deburring, brightening, and passivating. The process exposes an undisturbed, metallurgically clean surface, eliminating thermal stress and surface roughening, and improving the corrosion resistance.

Dr. Nagy welcomes suggestions for entries; send them to nagyz@email.unc.edu.

Professor Yeager was a keen advocate for the importance of the electrochemical sciences and technologies.

An article by Chung Chiun Liu and Robert F. Savinell in the latest issue of Interface.

Ernest B. Yeager of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Cleveland, Ohio, USA single-handedly established an electrochemical science and technology powerhouse at CWRU. Professor Yeager, the Frank Hovorka Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at CWRU, dedicated 50 years of his professional life to two things: advancing the field of electrochemical science and mentoring and advising students. One must also appreciate that Professor Yeager was an excellent and accomplished pianist, as well as a devout church citizen.

In 1976, Professor Yeager established the Case Center of Electrochemical Studies at CWRU focusing on the advancement of knowledge of electrochemical sciences. Students, post-doctoral fellows and visiting scientists around the world came through the Center and learned and acquired knowledge and skills on various aspects of electrochemical sciences and technologies. In recognition of his immense effort and devotion to electrochemical sciences, the Board of Trustees of CWRU designated the Case Center of Electrochemical Sciences as the Ernest B. Yeager Center for Electrochemical Sciences on August 17, 1994, and the Center is now known as the Yeager Center for Electrochemical Sciences.

Read the rest.

Plan now to participate at CSTIC 2015, one of the largest and the most comprehensive annual semiconductor technology conferences in China.

We invite you to submit your papers now for the China Semiconductor Technology International Conference 2015, one of the largest and the most comprehensive annual semiconductor technology conferences in China. CSTIC is organized by SEMI and IEEE, co-organized by China’s High-Tech Expert Committee (CHTEC). It is co-sponsored by ECS, MRS and China Electronics Materials Industry Association. CSTIC 2015 will be held on March 15-16, 2015 at the SHICC, Shanghai, China, in conjunction with SEMICON China 2015. It will cover all the aspects of semiconductor technology and manufacturing, including devices, design, lithography, integration, materials, processes, manufacturing as well as emerging semiconductor technologies and silicon material applications. Hot topics, such as 3D integration, III-V semiconductors, carbon nanoelectronics, LEDs, and MEMS. And CPTIC 2015 has joined CSTIC 2015 as Symposium XII : Si Materials and Photovoltaic Technology.

We are soliciting papers from authors around the world on all aspects of semiconductor and photovoltaic technology and manufacturing, including semiconductor design, Frond-End-of-Line (FEOL), Back-End-of-Line (BEOL), packaging, testing, as well as emerging semiconductor technologies; photovoltaic market, policy, power grid, device, design, process, tooling, materials, and fundamental study between China and the rest of the world with a focus on industrial applications.

Submit your abstract online.

With the 2016 Olympics looming in the distance, Rio de Janeiro city officials are aiming to tackle a major issue before the games begin – and that issue would be sanitation.

According to the Associated Press, Rio de Janeiro officials unveiled a new sanitation project, which hopes to eliminate the raw sewage that is tainting the waters of Rio’s Gloria Marian.

This from the Associated Press:

More than half of the sewage in this city of 12 million goes untreated, meaning that collected rainwater is often contaminated with raw sewage. More than 10,000 liters of raw sewage flows each second into most of Rio’s waterways, from the massive Guanabara Bay, where the Gloria Marina is located, to its beaches and lagoons.

Read the full article here.

In order to address this problem, the government is to build a pipeline to stem the flow of raw sewage into the marina. The project will connect area rainwater collectors with sewage treatment centers in order to eliminate the issue of raw sewage in the marina.

The project is expected to run around $6.2 million.

Though the issue of adequate sanitation goes far beyond Rio de Janeiro’s Gloria Marian. Forty percent of the world’s population – 2.5 billion people – practice open defecation or lack adequate sanitation facilities, and the consequences can be devastation for human health as well as the environment. To help combat this global issue, ECS is partnering with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in an exciting and innovative way to fund water and sanitation research.

Do you want to help solve some of the most challenging issues in the world today? Would you like to receive research funding to support your most innovative and creative problem solving ideas? Then please join us to lend your voice and expertise in helping to solve some of the world’s most challenging water and sanitation problems!

Modern electrochemistry can be traced back over 200 years to the 18th century and the work of Alessandro Volta and his experiments with the electric pile.

The following is an article from the latest issue of Interface by ECS Executive Director, Roque J. Calvo.

The 17th International Meeting on Lithium Batteries (IMLB)* was held this past June in the beautiful and historic setting at Villa Erba along the shores of Lake Como, Italy. This international meeting has become an exceptional gathering where the world’s top battery research scientists present their work on electrochemical conversion and storage. The application of their research now powers our essential wireless devices so that they run longer, cleaner, and more efficiently. But the splendor of the location was not the only reason that IMLB was so exceptional this year; the meeting venue reconnected attendees to their roots. Lake Como is the birthplace of Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the first battery, which he called the electric pile, and the place where the science of electrochemistry began.

Modern electrochemistry can be traced back over 200 years to the 18th century and the work of Alessandro Volta and his experiments with the electric pile. While Volta hailed from Lake Como and was a trained physicist, many consider him to be the first great electrochemist. As a result of his vast scientific influence, the ECS Europe Section named an award after him and every two years they recognize a scientist with the prestigious Volta Medal (see photo). The medal depicts his electric pile, the first notable electrochemical storage device.

Read the rest.

Thanks in large part to scientific breakthroughs in sensors, cars have been getting smarter – and soon they’ll be able to tell if you’re distracted behind the wheel.

General Motors and Australian company Seeing Machines have landed a 15 year deal to create sensors that will detect when drivers are distracted.

Read the full article here.

This from the company news release:

The Seeing Machines’ Operator Monitoring System is based on patented eye-tracking technology that uses sensing equipment that requires no re-calibration between different drivers and tracks head alignment for potential distraction of the driver.

The sensors are another addition to the technology that could assist in the creation of the fully driverless car. With the United Services Auto Association noting that auto-breaks, collision assurance, and adaptive cruise control potentially coming to a car dealership near you, it is apparent that our cars are getting smarter.

Though we may be several decades away from these fully driverless cars, the sensor technology in automobiles is assisting in driver safety through anti-distraction technology.

“Eye and head tracking technology is the next step in automotive safety, which we expect to play a significant role in the reduction of one of the greatest causes of accidents: driver distraction,” said Ken Kroeger, CEO of Seeing Machines. “We strongly believe that the addition of driver monitoring to ADAS will deliver a significant improvement to the safety of drivers, passengers and pedestrians.”

Learn more sensor science and technology and their global impact via ECS’s Digital Library.

The researchers at Virginia Tech have successfully demonstrated the concept of a sugar biobattery that can completely convert the chemical energy in sugar substrates into electricity.
Credit: Virginia Tech University

According to new studies, the future of energy storage and conversion may be something that’s sitting in your kitchen cupboard.

A new breakthrough out of Virginia Tech demonstrates that a sugar-powered biobattery has the potential to outperform the current lithium-ion batteries on many fronts.

Not only is the energy density of the sugar-powered battery significantly higher than that of the lithium-ion battery, but the sugar battery is also less costly than the li-ion, refillable, environmentally friendly, and nonflammable.

This from LiveScience:

This nature-inspired biobattery is a type of enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) — an electrobiochemical device that converts chemical energy from fuels such as starch and glycogen into electricity. While EFCs operate under the same general principles as traditional fuel cells, they use enzymes instead of noble-metal catalysts to oxidize their fuel. Enzymes allow for the use of more-complex fuels (such as glucose), and these more-complex fuels are what give EFCs their superior energy density.

Read the full article here.

The scientists hope to increase the power density, extend the lifetime, and reduce the cost of electrode materials in order for this energy-dense sugar biobattery to become the technology of the future.

Find the full findings in this issue of Nature Communications.

Learn more about this topic by reading a recently published open access article via ECS’s Digital Library.

Technology like this pillbox sensor from Lively can help caretakers monitor people with Alzheimer’s and dementia from afar.

Sensors may be the answer to easy and accessible in-home senior care – at least that’s what the elder care tech industry is trying to achieve.

It’s no secret that the American population is greying, and with the continuing aging of the “baby boom” generation, the issue of independence at home has become a high priority. Now, seniors have to opportunity to stay in their own homes safely thanks to sensors.

This from CNN:

SmartThings is a DIY home automation system that connects sensors and smart devices with a wireless hub. In addition to sensors like those in Mary Lou’s home, the system can loop in smart thermostats, smart plugs, door locks and surveillance cameras.

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