Royal Society of Chemistry Electrochemistry: Volume 11 - Nanosystems Electrochemistry (Specialist Periodical Reports - Electrochemistry)

Relaunching in 2012, the Specialist Periodical Report, Electrochemistry presents comprehensive and critical reviews in all aspects of the field. T Specialist Periodical Reports present comprehensive and critical reviews of the current literature, with contributions from across the globe. Relaunching in 2012 with a new editorial team (Compton and Wadhawan) the eleventh volume of Electrochemistry has a special focus on Nanosystems. Uniquely, this series will include a review of Chinese literature - opening up this expanse of information to the rest of the word. Topics examined in this volume include: Nanopore systems, metal organic frameworks, nanoparticles, nanocarbon electrochemistry, bipolar electrochemistry in nanosscience and electrochemistry with liquid nanosystems. This volume is a key reference in the field of electrochemistry, allowing the reader to easily become aquainted with the lastest research and opinion. Purchasers of the print edition can register for free access to the electronic edition by returning the enclosed registration card. Review Electrochemistry, the science investigating charge transfer at interfaces, has a long history of successes in several technological fields. The reason for this resides in its versatility, which makes electrochemistry suitable for investigating many different phenomena. This book provides a timely review of how electrochemistry has been used in the elucidation of events taking place at the nano-scale, either in space or time. This has been achieved by creating a good, balanced mix between theory and applications, text and figures. The text is clear and enriched by key figures/schemes that help the reader to gain a better understanding of the fundamental concepts and the reported examples. The commendable effort of the authors in providing relevant background information must also be acknowledged, since this makes understanding of the different chapters possible even for readers unfamiliar with the subjects reviewed. Each chapter commences with a clear and brief introduction that helps the reader become familiar with the topic presented and with the aims pursued by the authors. Chapter 1, Electrochemistry to record single events, provides an ambitious overview of the use of electrochemistry as a tool to investigate discrete events confined in time or space for: i) single molecule detection; ii) transfer across single pores; iii) single nano-particle detection; iv) electrochemistry of fast moving acoustic cavities; and to fabricate v) nano-gap electrodes and their application in molecule electronics. In each section of this chapter, the authors introduce the benefit of using electrochemistry to investigate a specific event and how this could be achieved in terms of device and experimental setup. Despite the laudable efforts of the authors and the clarity of the text, the inherent differences between the examples covered in this chapter means that the chapter does not always flow smoothly. Chapter 2, Electrocatalysis at nanoparticles, provides a clear and well-documented discussion on two aspects of nano-particle electrocatalysis. In the first part of the chapter, the authors report on the effect of nano-particle index plane and defects in their electrocatalytic properties. In this section, the reader can find a clear description of how nano-particles with different index plane could fabricated and characterised and how the different crystalline structures influence the catalytic properties. This first part is followed by a section on how electrochemistry at the nano-scale could be used for the characterisation of the catalytic properties of single nano-particles either via immobilisation onto nano-electrodes, by collision experiments or by electrochemical microscopy. In Chapter 3, entitled Bipolar electrochemistry in the nano-sciences, the authors guide the reader through the fascinating world of bipolar electrochemistry. This begins with a c