Approaching the literature in a subject such as electrochemistry can be daunting. Specialist Periodical Reports present comprehensive and critical reviews of the current literature, with contributions from across the globe, providing the reader with an informed digest of the most important research currently carried out in the field. Re-launched in 2012 with a new editorial team (Compton and Wadhawan), this latest volume covers a broad range of topics, all with an emphasis on the nano aspects of electrochemistry. Aside from the applied chapters, contributions have also been submitted which examine eletrochemistry in specific regions; China and India are covered in this volume.
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Ask an electrochemist and he will tell you: `All electrochemistry is nano'. Beyond this bold and arguable overstatement, some truth lies. The field of electrochemistry at the nanoscale is an active area of research, which has been described by David E. Williams in his concluding remarks at the 2013 Faraday Discussions meeting on `Electroanalysis at the Nanoscale' as the "4th generation electrochemistry". This new generation is marked by the emergence of new tools able to explore practical problems more completely. With more than 55,000 scientific articles (searched using ISI Web of Science by keywords `nano*' and `electrochem*' between 2001 and 2014), the greatest challenge of the editors was to select significant research areas. As a consequence, the 12th Volume of the Electrochemistry series published by the Royal Society of Chemistry is the second volume dedicated to electrochemistry at the nanoscale. The present volume is divided into three distinct domains. The first five chapters are dedicated to nanometric tools, whereas the following three chapters focus on nanomaterials. The final two chapters provide an overview of the nanoelectrochemistry research conducted in China and India.
The systems presented here to explore the nanometric scale are liquid-liquid nanointerfaces, nanoelectrodes, semi-conductor nanostructures, nanogap electrodes, and nanopore systems. These tools have the common objective of investigating electrochemical processes at close to the molecular scale. All five chapters have adopted a tutorial approach where fundamentals are described and fabrication processes are reviewed. These chapters are of a high standard and provide an excellent introduction to their respective fields. In two distinct chapters, the electrochemistry of metal-organic frameworks and graphene are reviewed with the emphasis on the fundamental aspects, although potential applications in the field of electrocatalysis, electroanalysis, and energy storage are described. The third chapter on nanomaterials is more application oriented as it reviews the use of nanomaterials for improved sensors for the detection of heavy metal ions. In the past, nanomaterials have been used in sensors to improve detection without scientific evidence that the sensor benefited from the electrocatalytic properties of the materials rather than an increased surface area. This chapter focuses on the study of the adsorption of heavy metal ions on electrodes modified with nanomaterials with the aim of improving the understanding of the mechanism of the interaction between the ions and nanomaterials such as carbon-based and metal oxide nano-objects. The last two chapters are different as they describe the research efforts in China and India. These two countries are major contributors to the field as China is ranked first and India fifth in the number of publications for the 2001-2014 period. Interestingly, for both countries, research seems more focused on nanomaterials rather than on nanometric tools. This is the second book of the series Electrochemistry since it has been revived by Prof. R. G. Compton and Dr. J. D. Wadhawan, following a 19-year break between Volumes 10 and 11. Given the high quality of the book, we can only hope that many more volumes are planned. -- Gregoire Herzog * Chromatographia (2014) 77:1569-1570 *
"All five chapters have adopted a tutorial approach where fundamentals are described and fabrication processes are reviewed. These chapters are of a high standard and provide an excellent introduction to their respective fields....The last two chapters are different as they describe the research efforts in China and India....Given the high quality of the book, we can only hope that many more volumes are planned." -- Gregoire Herzog * Chromatographia (2014) 77:1569-1570 *
