Alex Peroff, Ph.D.
Electroanalytical Scientist
Pine Research Instrumentation

We live in a world of instant gratification. Whether it’s streaming video from Netflix, food from Doordash, or next-day delivery from Amazon, we can have it with the click of a button. And in large part, scientific equipment suppliers are keeping up. From online portals generating fast purchase orders, to maintaining sufficient inventory, scientific equipment suppliers are meeting the needs of research scientists. However, as I mentioned briefly in an earlier ECS Blog post, COVID has affected the global supply chain, and its impact has trickled down to scientific equipment suppliers.

Most news headlines reflect the microchip shortage and its impact on the automobile industry. However, the microchip supply is not the only culprit. Automobile manufacturers grew accustomed to receiving parts quickly. As a result, they never kept extra chips in stock. Why keep additional inventory when it could be delivered at a moment’s notice? While it is undoubtedly a more economical and efficient system, its a vulnerability when your supplier can’t deliver on time. Having spare equipment to do your work is a lesson I learned early on when I was a graduate student. (more…)

Guest blog by Dr. Alyson Lanciki, Scientific Editor, Metrohm International

For over twenty years now, there has been continuous human occupation off our planet.

The International Space Station (ISS), launched in 1998, is a modular satellite in low orbit around the Earth, which is visible even with the naked eye.

In October, NASA launched an Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus resupply ship. This cargo ship carried an experimental system on board used to study the oxidation of ammonia under microgravity conditions to convert urine into water on the ISS. Improving this waste management system has far-reaching repercussions for longer exploratory missions where the weight of the payload must be optimized with the amount of water needed (which is heavy) to sustain life during the trip. Given the limited resources aboard a spaceship, the recovery of water from all processes is of great importance. (more…)

Sheela Berchmans, CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute chief scientist.

Guest post by: Sheela Berchmans, chief scientist at the CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute

Sheela Berchmans has been an ECS member since 2012 and member of the Organic and Biologic Division and India Section since 2019. Berchmans’ areas of expertise include microbial fuel cells, nanomaterials for sensor applications, bio-assisted synthesis of metal nanoparticles, and electrocatalysis. Read her past work, available now in the ECS Digital Library.

Follow the latest research on electrocatalysis at the 235th ECS Meeting taking place on May 26-30, 2019 in Dallas, TX.

Electrocatalysis assumes a special importance as the applied potential at the electrified interface provides a tunable ∆G to the rate component. ∆G consists of a chemical and a electrochemical component (e-∆G0/RT e-F∆/RT), where the electrochemical component provides a leverage to control the rate of reaction. For simple nonbonding reactions, the rate of the reaction can be expressed as a function of work function of the metal catalyst. However, when bonding reactions are concerned, the adsorption of the reactants at the electrode surface determines the rate of the reaction. For eg, we take into consideration, Hydrogen evolution reaction, (HER) a typical prototype of electrochemical reaction.

The following reaction steps determine the rate of the reaction. The first step involves the proton discharge on the electro catalyst (Volmer reaction) which desorbs either through an electrochemical desorption (Heyrovsky reaction) or chemical desorption from the electrode surface as H2 gas. (2nd and 3rd steps) This reaction is known to be highly exothermic in nature.

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Do you have an opinion you’d like to share? Do you have a story to share about what open access means to you? Or maybe you’ve published a paper with ECS and would like a platform to introduce your work and express the motives behind it?

Whatever the case …

We want to hear from you!

We’re accepting guest post submissions. Get creative and send your idea to Marketing@electrochem.org. Contributing posts may be featured in ECS newsletters and posted on all social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. (more…)

The following guest post is by Telpriore G. Tucker, PhD, founder of the ECS Valley of the Sun (Central Arizona) Student Chapter. In it, Tucker discusses his life and work, his experiences with the Society, and his continual efforts to promote the study of electrochemistry throughout the Valley of the Sun. 

My name is Telpriore “Greg” Tucker. I’m a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, AZ. I simply go by Greg on the ASU campus and am more so known as Dr. T in the local community of Greater Metro Phoenix. I’m also the treasurer and a board member of the Arizona Green Chamber of Commerce. Currently, I reside in Scottsdale, AZ, but I’m originally from Colorado Springs, CO.

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