SPECTROELECTROCHEMISTRY

Electrochemistry affects several relevant research subjects of physics, chemistry and biology such as the transformation of materials, the transfer of information (especially in living systems), or the conversion and storage of energy. In addition, electrochemical processes constitute a major class of chemical reactions both in the laboratory and on large industrial scales. While conventional analytical electrochemistry provides excellent methods to determine concentrations (e.g. in sensor technology), to yield energy data in the form of redox potentials and to elucidate formal reaction mechanisms via kinetic analysis, these techniques alone are often not immediately suitable to identify unknown species which are formed as intermediates or as products in a redox reaction.

The combination of reaction-oriented electrochemistry with species-focused spectroscopy in spectroelectrochemistry can solve this problem and thus allow for a more complete analysis of electron transfer processes and complex redox reactions. Many research groups from various sub-fields of the chemical sciences have engaged in recent years in using and developing this combined methodology. While the technique has been well developed during the last few decades, its application in various fields of chemistry has only recently become more widespread. Readily accessible, inexpensive equipment and lower barriers to application have contributed to this situation and, at the same time, it is becoming less and less acceptable in chemical research to assign redox transformations without spectral evidence. Spectroelectrochemistry has therefore evolved as a powerful yet usually inexpensive technique which yields mechanistic (chemistry), energy-relevant (electro) as well as electronic structure information (spectro). The whole range of the electromagnetic spectrum can be employed from x-ray absorption to NMR spectroscopies.