All dressed up, but where to go? Concluding remarks for FD 140.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this meeting was to bring together experimentalists and theoreticians to discuss the interplay between recent developments in theoretical and computational tools with experimental results in electrocatalysis. Intense and rewarding discussions in aspects of very topical electrochemical research arose during the three days of this Faraday Discussion. A closer collaboration between experimentalists and theoreticians is a prerequisite for successful development of the field and this meeting definitely aided mutual understanding of these areas of research. Why was this meeting important and timely? It is an interesting observation that, since we are immersed in rapid fundamental changes in the way scientific research is carried out, we sometimes cease to notice how much this has changed. Clear examples of this are the better availability of advanced instrumental and computational techniques and the instantaneous access to scientific information through the Internet. Thus, we are in the middle of revolutionary changes in scientific research resulting from three new fundamental advances. The first refers to the possibility of carrying out quantum chemical calculations at a high level of theory and using these for the modelling of complex electrochemical reactions to give an insight into interfacial structure and reaction mechanisms. In some cases, this is providing quantitative information of preferred reaction channels that it would have not been possible to obtain a decade ago. The second refers to the new instrumental techniques that have become available. The third is developments in materials science.