Recent Advances in the Sciences of Electrocatalysis.

This paper was presented as the Acheson Award lecture at the national meeting of the Electrochemical Society in October 1980 and surveys recent developments in the field of electrocatalysis, including work in the authors laboratory, most of which was carried out with the support of ONR. The first part surveys techniques for obtaining information concerning electrode surfaces and particularly species adsorbed on such surfaces. Special attention is focused on in-situ optical techniques ultraviolet, visible, infrared, Raman and the use of ex-situ surface physics techniques, the latter in conjunction with electrochemical studies of single crystal electrode surfaces. The second part of the paper summarizes the present state of understanding of hydrogen and oxygen electrocatalysis. Author