Electrochemistry News Items & Facts - October 2022

Every day, we all use battery powered devices at home, drive vehicles, eat packaged foods, and drink clean water. These are a few examples of the countless aspects of our modern lifestyles which are reliant on electrochemistry - broadly defined as the study of how electricity interact with materials.

As an electrochemistry instrumentation company, Admiral Instruments proudly serves our customers who are among the millions of scientists, engineers, & technicians around the world using potentiostats to uncover new ways electrochemistry may benefit us all.

To celebrate how electrochemistry has shaped the past, touches our present-day lives, and influences the future, every month Admiral Instruments posts five notable news articles, publications, & trivia somehow related to electrochemistry. Click on each entry to read more from the source article!

Electrochemistry News Items & Facts for October 2022:

1. The term "rust" is only supposed to refer to iron oxidation, or more specifically the ionic bonding of iron and oxygen atoms. Any metal containing iron can rust, but other metals ionically bonding with oxygen atoms are not actually rusting even if they look like it. For example, copper doesn't rust but still reacts with oxygen to form a dark patina consisting of cuprous oxide mixed with sulfur and chloride species.

2. The copper exterior of the Statue of Liberty is supported by iron on its interior skeleton, causing galvanic corrosion with the two dissimilar metals being in contact with the same electrolyte (seawater in this case).

3. The first all-electric and fully autonomous cargo ship recently launched in Norway. It features a 7 MWh battery, approximately 15 mile per hour top speed, and can carry sixty 40-foot shipping containers.

4. Researchers recently repurposed electrochemical sensors for aquatic environments to monitor voltage & current from microbial metabolism to characterize soil health and productivity.

5. Promethium is the only one of 17 rare earth elements that is radioactive, and its beta emissions are used to measure the thickness of paint coatings, metals and plastics.