Research opportunities surface/interface properties

EC-NMR has made considerable progress during the past few years. It is now possible to investigate in detail metal-liquid interfaces under potential control, to deduce electronic properties of electrodes (platinum) and of adsorbates (CO), and to study the surface diffusion of adsorbates. The method can also provide information on the dispersion of commercial carbon-supported platinum fuel cell electrocatalysts and on electrochem-ically generated sintering effects. Such progress has opened up many new research opportunities since we are now in the position to harness the wealth of electronic, Sp-LDOS as well as dynamic and thermodynamic information that can be obtained from NMR experiments. As such, it is to be expected that EC-NMR will continue to thrive and may eventually become a major characterization technique in the field of interfacial electrochemistry. 

Most recently, significant research efforts have been focused on materials compatibility and adhesion at the zeoHte/polymer interface of the mixed-matrix membranes in order to achieve enhanced separation property relative to their corresponding polymer membranes. Modification of the surface of the zeolite particles or modification of the polymer chains to improve the interfacial adhesion provide new opportunity for making successful zeolite/polymer mixed-matrix membranes with significantly improved separation performance. 

Electrochemistry offers the best opportunity to control potential at the solid-solution interface and to study the behaviour of surfactant molecules in the presence of an electrostatic field. Miller [1,2] was the first to show that a film of lipids spread at the air/solution interface of a Langmuir trough can be transferred onto a surface of a Hg electrode. He demonstrated that the field-induced changes of the film properties may be conveniently studied using electrochemical techniques. Miller s approach was applied later by Nelson and Guidelli for biomimicking research. They deposited films of phospholipids onto a Hg... 

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