Electrocatalysis: a futuristic view

Bowden and Rideal [Proc R. Soc. A.120, 59 (1928)] were the first to carry out a systematic series of measurements of the same electrode reaction, hydrogen evolution, on a number of metals. However, they did not have an electrocatalytic attitude and consequently did not directly compare the rate constants from such measurements. The word “electrocatalysis” was first used by Grubb [Low Temperature Hydrocarbons, 17th Annual Power Sources Conference, Atlantic City (1963)] in 1963 in connection with the investigations of fuel cells. However, the first interpretation of electrocatalysis came before that in a famous paper by Horiuti and Polanyi [Acta Physicochini., U.S.S.R. 2, 505 (1935)] and the basic diagram of this paper is given. Here the rate of the reaction is controlled by the heat of activation and there is a relationship between this quantity and heat of adsorption δδHOX=βδδHAds. This seminal theory of 1935 has played a part in various guises in the development of electrocatalysis till today. In this document, examples of application of this theory will be given in the form of recent progress made and then the discussion will change to a presentation of near future tasks, the presentation ending by an attempt to predict some possible electrocatalytic situations beyond 2050.