Feature
University of Southampton chemistry researchers are on a public engagement mission to raise awareness of their pioneering electrochemistry research and its fundamental real-world impacts. From computer chips to batteries and lasers, electrochemistry underpins most modern-day devices and the advances being made are something special.
TOGETHER IN ELECTROCHEMISTRY DREAMS “ Since 2011 we have received two EPSRC programme grants worth a combined £11.5 million, along with responsive mode grants totalling £1.7 million, which we have used to undertake pioneering interdisciplinary research at Southampton, leading to significant advances in the field of electrochemistry, in particular in electrodeposition.” Gill Reid Professor of Inorganic Chemistry
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The research Electrochemistry is the study of the flow of electrons and their impact on chemistry. The flow of electrons from a power source can drive chemical reactions that would otherwise not happen or would be very slow, such as coating car parts with nickel. The flow of electrons from a chemical reaction can also be measured, such as measuring sugar in a blood glucose sensor. Gill Reid, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and President-Elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry, explained: “Since 2011 we have received two EPSRC programme grants worth a combined £11.5 million, along with responsive mode grants totalling £1.7 million, which we have used to undertake pioneering interdisciplinary research at Southampton, leading to significant advances in the field of electrochemistry, in particular in electrodeposition. “Electrodeposition is where electrochemistry is used to deposit a layer of one material onto something else, for example the silver plating on nickel cutlery. The advances we have made are in the methods used, such as supercritical fluid electrodeposition, which offers new opportunities to deposit materials at a smaller scale and with greater precision and complexity – factors required to make more powerful sensing and computing devices. This opens up the possibility of making smarter
and faster devices across a broad range of applications, from ultra-high-density solid state memory for computers and microthrusters for satellites, to devices for energyharvesting and nanomedicine.” Talking to teachers The catalyst for an innovative public engagement campaign came, in part, from feedback gained during PhD research that surveyed chemistry teachers and the topics they found most challenging to teach. Electrochemistry, specifically, came out at the top of the list. “We were very interested to learn that teachers were struggling to convey the importance of electrochemistry and its relevance to everyday life to their students,” said David Read, Professorial Fellow in Chemical Education, Director of Outreach and School Teacher Fellow. “I myself had first-hand experience of this having been a secondary school chemistry teacher before joining Southampton, so I understood the challenges teachers faced with this subject and therefore the lack of real context to stimulate interest and participation from students. “We were confident that our research into new electrochemical processes for the development of smaller-faster-smarter electronic devices would be of interest to
