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Electrochemistry: Retrospect and Prospects
Author(s) -
Shukla Ashok,
Prem Kumar T.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
israel journal of chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.908
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1869-5868
pISSN - 0021-2148
DOI - 10.1002/ijch.202000064
Subject(s) - electricity , chemistry , civilization , electrochemistry , nanotechnology , art history , electrical engineering , law , history , engineering , electrode , political science , materials science
Since the beginning of modern civilization, static electricity and later current electricity have been used to get to grips with many situations. The publication of Gilbert's De magnete in 1600 triggered a series of inventions such as Leyden jar (1745: von Kleist; van Musschenbrock) and torsion balance (1784: Charles Coulomb). Current electricity was discovered at the end of the eighteenth century. Humphry Davy's remarkable prescience that electricity could overcome the normal ‘chemical affinity’ that holds elements together was a gamechanger, ushering in an explosion of electrochemical science. Today, electrochemistry has transformed human life in ways unimaginable only decades ago. This article is an effort to reflect upon the role of electrochemistry in our search for solutions to everyday problems and its continuing forays into areas spanning the mundane to outer space.