Sadoway’s research seeks to establish the scientific underpinnings for technologies that make efficient use of energy and natural resources in an environmentally sound matter.
Credit: MIT

Donald R. Sadoway – a prominent member of The Electrochemical Society and electrochemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge – has led a team of researchers at MIT to improve a proposed liquid battery system that could help make sources of renewable energy more viable and prove to be a competitor for conventional power plants.

This from MIT News:

Sadoway, the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, says the new formula allows the battery to work at a temperature more than 200 degrees Celsius lower than the previous formulation. In addition to the lower operating temperature, which should simplify the battery’s design and extend its working life, the new formulation will be less expensive to make, he says.

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Be recognized for your outstanding technical achievements in electrochemical and solid-state science and technology through our prestigious Honors and Awards.

Nomination deadlines are fast approaching for Society awards.

Carl Wagner Memorial Award of The Electrochemical Society
Deadline: October 1, 2014

The Carl Wagner Memorial Award was established in 1980 to recognize a mid-career achievement and excellence in research areas of interest of the Society, and significant contributions in the teaching or guidance of students or colleagues in education, industry, or government. The award commemorates Carl Wagner, a man of outstanding scientific achievement with important contributions in all areas of the Society’s interest, the Society’s first Palladium Award winner, and a dedicated teacher.

The Award Recipient shall have made significant achievements in research in areas of interest to the Society. The Recipient shall have contributed strongly to the guidance and development of students or associates in education, industry, or government. The Recipient shall have attained a level of professional achievement that, in the judgment of the Carl Wagner Award Subcommittee, justifies the objective of recognizing mid-career achievement. The research and teaching or guidance being recognized shall have encompassed interdisciplinary breadth.

The recipient does not need to be a member of The Electrochemical Society. There shall be no restrictions or reservations regarding sex, race, citizenship, or place of origin or residence. The award shall consist of an appropriately worded scroll, sterling medal, complimentary meeting registration for award recipient and companion, a dinner held in recipient’s honor during the designated meeting, and Life Membership in The Society.

Nominate a colleague here by October 1, 2014

Here’s a great paper talking about Carl Wagner’s (among others) contributions to the sciences.

Find out more about our awards program.

The researchers discovered that two flat semiconductor materials can be connected edge-to-edge with crystalline perfection.
Credit: University of Washington

Current member of ECS, Xiaodong Xu, has made a huge contribution to the field of electrochemical science with the creation of atomically seamless, thinnest-possible semiconductor junctions.

Xu, along with the scientists at the University of Washington, believe their semiconductor – coming in at only three atoms thick – is the most slender possible, a new class of nanoscale materials.

This from the University of Washington:

The University of Washington researchers have demonstrated that two of these single-layer semiconductor materials can be connected in an atomically seamless fashion known as a heterojunction. This result could be the basis for next-generation flexible and transparent computing, better light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, and solar technologies.

Read the full article here.

“Our experimental demonstration of such junctions between two-dimensional materials should enable new kinds of transistors, LEDs, nanolasers, and solar cells to be developed for highly integrated electronic and optical circuits within a single atomic plane,” Xu said.

The research was published online this week in Nature Materials.

Find more research from Xu published in our Digital Library.

Through our Honors and Awards and Program, ECS recognizes outstanding technical achievements in electrochemistry and solid-state science and technology

Nomination deadlines are fast approaching for Society awards.

Olin Palladium Award
Deadline: October 1, 2014

This important award was established in 1950 for distinguished contributions to the field of electrochemical or corrosion science.

The recipient shall be distinguished for contributions to the field of electrochemical or corrosion science. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the fundamental understanding of all types of electrochemical and corrosion phenomena and processes. The recipient does not need to be a member of The Electrochemical Society. There shall be no restrictions or reservations regarding age, sex, race, citizenship, or place of origin or residence.

The award shall consist of a Palladium medal and a plaque that contains a bronze replica thereof, both bearing the recipient’s name, the sum of $7,500, complimentary meeting registration for award recipient and companion, a dinner held in recipient’s honor during the designated meeting, and Life Membership in The Society.

Nominate a colleague here by October 1, 2014

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.

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.

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.

ORCID is unique in its ability to reach across disciplines, research sectors, and national boundaries and its cooperation with other identifier systems.

ECS is pleased to announce that it recently became a member of the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) registry. ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-based effort founded by academic institutions, professional bodies, funding agencies, and publishers to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers intended to remedy the systemic name ambiguity problem seen in scholarly research. ORCID resolves the confusion brought about by name changes, the cultural differences in name order presentation, and the inconsistent use of first-name and middle-name abbreviations on published research papers.

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