The Dynamic Electrode Surface

Faraday Discussion 121, organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Faraday Division, was held at the Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-PlanckGesellschaft, Berlin, Germany, from 15th to 17th April 2002. This event attracted 107 prominent electrochemists or surface scientists from research centres or universities from 17 countries. Less than five representatives from industry attended. Faraday Discussions are international scientific conferences focusing on rapidly developing areas of physical chemistry. About 20 to 24 selected papers are distributed to delegates for review before the meeting. The main part of the conference then discusses the papers, giving participants the opportunity to join in the peer review of the article, which is then published, as are the original papers (by the Royal Society of Chemistry). To open the Discussion Professor G. E d from the host institute presented the Spiers Memorial Lecture, entitled ‘Dynamics of Surface Reactions’. Professor E d reviewed electrochemistry at quantum, atomic, mesoscopic and macroscopic levels. Many advances have been made, but there is s d much to investigate to reach a better mechanistic understanding of the dynamic electrode interface. After this, 24 papers were presented, passionately discussed and reviewed. There were also 38 poster contributions. Most of the papers were on single crystal metal electrodes, although semiconducting, particulate, polycrystalline and surface modified electrodes were covered. Electrochemical methods (cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, chronocoulometry), an ex situ surface characterisation technique @-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)), and a wide range of in situ structural imaging and spectroscopic techniques were described. This selective review focuses on the platinum metals and some important electrochemical issues.