4
1 Introduction
Electroplating has long developed in parallel to and independently of either colloid
chemistry or any other means of microscopic manipulation of materials. The first
successful electroplating was carried out by Luigi Brugnatelli in 1805, only five years
after Volta’s publication of his electrical pile. Since Brugnatelli’s work was denied
to be published by the French Academy of Sciences, it took nearly three and a
half decades while electroplating was rediscovered in parallel by Henry and George
Elkington (in Britain) and by Moritz Hermann von Jacobi (in Russia), the latter
becoming the author of the first electrodeposition monograph [4]. While electrodeposition was first used for decorative purposes, the second half of the nineteenth
century gave rise to the establishment of the plating industry and electrorefining
procedure of various metals (Wohlwill process).
Various concepts of electrochemical science and galvanotechnology could be seen
already in Jacobi’s work [4]. By the middle of the twentieth century, electrodeposition could be much embedded into the knowledge of chemical thermodynamics
and kinetics. Monographs published at that time either for electrodeposition [5] or
galvanotechnology [6] indicate the completion of the theoretical background. The
theories concerning crystal growth were also applied to electrocrystallization by this
time, mostly based on the efforts of Stranski and Kaishev, also improved later by
Budevski and Milchev.
The first detailed monograph on electrodeposition of alloys was published only
in 1963 [7]. Brenner’s book was used for decades as the primary reference for the
scientific literature on electrodeposition, and some key categories outlined therein
are used in an essentially unchanged form still nowadays (i.e, codeposition modes
of metals). Many important works published later [8–11] enriched the scientific and
technological literature with bunch of new data, but they primarily served an industry
that focused on the production of large-scale and non-structured coatings. It happened
only in the twenty-first century that monographs on nanoscale electrochemistry [12–
21] and electrochemistry-based nanofabrication [22–24] appeared, including fields
also much beyond electrodeposition.
The list below offers a short overview on some major important milestones of the
development of micro- and nanoscience with relevance in electrochemistry, although
by far not all are considered as a part of pure electrochemistry.
1982 Scanning Tunneling Microscopy [25]
1985 Electron tunneling measurement through single-atom junctions [26]
1986 STM for solid–liquid interfaces [27]
1986 Atomic Force Microscopy [28]
1988 STM as applied for electrodes [29–34]
1989 Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy [35]
1990 Nanoelectrodes of 10 Angstrom [36]
1995 Electrolysis in porous oxide nano-templates [37, 38]
2001 Measurement of single-molecule conductivity [39]
2001 In-situ video-STM of electrode surfaces [40]
2003 In-situ TEM for electrochemical systems [41].
1 Introduction
Electroplating has long developed in parallel to and independently of either colloid
chemistry or any other means of microscopic manipulation of materials. The first
successful electroplating was carried out by Luigi Brugnatelli in 1805, only five years
after Volta’s publication of his electrical pile. Since Brugnatelli’s work was denied
to be published by the French Academy of Sciences, it took nearly three and a
half decades while electroplating was rediscovered in parallel by Henry and George
Elkington (in Britain) and by Moritz Hermann von Jacobi (in Russia), the latter
becoming the author of the first electrodeposition monograph [4]. While electrodeposition was first used for decorative purposes, the second half of the nineteenth
century gave rise to the establishment of the plating industry and electrorefining
procedure of various metals (Wohlwill process).
Various concepts of electrochemical science and galvanotechnology could be seen
already in Jacobi’s work [4]. By the middle of the twentieth century, electrodeposition could be much embedded into the knowledge of chemical thermodynamics
and kinetics. Monographs published at that time either for electrodeposition [5] or
galvanotechnology [6] indicate the completion of the theoretical background. The
theories concerning crystal growth were also applied to electrocrystallization by this
time, mostly based on the efforts of Stranski and Kaishev, also improved later by
Budevski and Milchev.
The first detailed monograph on electrodeposition of alloys was published only
in 1963 [7]. Brenner’s book was used for decades as the primary reference for the
scientific literature on electrodeposition, and some key categories outlined therein
are used in an essentially unchanged form still nowadays (i.e, codeposition modes
of metals). Many important works published later [8–11] enriched the scientific and
technological literature with bunch of new data, but they primarily served an industry
that focused on the production of large-scale and non-structured coatings. It happened
only in the twenty-first century that monographs on nanoscale electrochemistry [12–
21] and electrochemistry-based nanofabrication [22–24] appeared, including fields
also much beyond electrodeposition.
The list below offers a short overview on some major important milestones of the
development of micro- and nanoscience with relevance in electrochemistry, although
by far not all are considered as a part of pure electrochemistry.
1982 Scanning Tunneling Microscopy [25]
1985 Electron tunneling measurement through single-atom junctions [26]
1986 STM for solid–liquid interfaces [27]
1986 Atomic Force Microscopy [28]
1988 STM as applied for electrodes [29–34]
1989 Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy [35]
1990 Nanoelectrodes of 10 Angstrom [36]
1995 Electrolysis in porous oxide nano-templates [37, 38]
2001 Measurement of single-molecule conductivity [39]
2001 In-situ video-STM of electrode surfaces [40]
2003 In-situ TEM for electrochemical systems [41].