Photo from: Stanford University // Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

A new type of protective face mask

In light of COVID-19 pandemic, research scientist John Xu and mechanical engineer Friedrich “Fritz” Prinz from Stanford University came together to rethink and improve protective face masks using their background in electrochemical processes.

As most of us are now familiar with, breathing with a face mask can be uncomfortable and difficult. According to Stanford News, that’s because N95 masks filter out 95 percent or more of small particulate matter from the air, including the virus, which as a result, makes breathing harder. Its estimated oxygen intake can be reduced anywhere from 5 to 20 percent which can lead to dizziness and lightheadedness. Particularly for health care workers and others working in the front lines of the pandemic, long-term mask wear can even damage lungs. (more…)

Last November, ECS Executive Director and CEO Christopher Jannuzzi and ECS Director of Community Engagement Shannon Reed attended the Chemical Sciences Roundtable (CSR) Electrochemistry Workshop in Washington, DC, which focused on the Advances, Challenges, and Long-Term Opportunities in Electrochemistry: Addressing Societal Needs.

The event, hosted by NAS and NSF, explored how electrochemistry can transform technologies related to various applications. The focus was on the instrumentation, education, and other needs required to advance the electrochemical field. (more…)

UPDATE: In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 11th International Frumkin Symposium on Electrochemistry has been postponed until October 2021 (expectedly October 18-22). Learn more here.

Inviting all ECS members

In honor of the 125th anniversary of the birth of famous electrochemist Alexander N. Frumkin, the organizing committee of the Frumkin symposium invites all ECS members for participation on

October 19-23, 2020 in Moscow, Russia

The symposium covers principal areas of modern electrochemistry. It will be carried out in the form of eight parallel sections: (more…)

The Electrochemical Society honors 2019 Nobel Chemistry Prize laureates, John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, by the launch of a new collection highlighting their scientific contributions published by ECS. In addition, ECS recognizes their contributions in the winter 2019 issue of Interface, now available online.

Goodenough, Whittingham, and Yoshino have been deeply involved with The Electrochemical Society—as members, authors, editors, fellows, meeting participants and organizers, awardees, and more. Their publications with ECS, to varying degrees, trace the history of the development of the Lithium-ion battery, the revolutionary invention for which they shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (more…)

In “Approaches for the Electrochemical Interrogation of DNA-Based Sensors: A Critical Review,” Miguel Aller Pellitero, Alexander Shaver, and Netzahualcóyotl (Netz) Arroyo-Currás reviewed the specific advantages of the electroanalytical methods most commonly used for the interrogation of DNA-based sensors.

Arroyo-Currás, ECS member and associate editor, Journal of the Electrochemical Society sensors technical area, provided more background information to the article in response to questions from the ECS Blog.

What are DNA-based electrochemical sensors?

These are measurement platforms that employ any form of DNA as the molecular recognition element. We must remember that electrochemistry is extremely sensitive (for example, there is significant work regarding stochastic detection of single entities like molecules, nanoparticles and whole cells and viruses) but lacks specificity; thus, relying on the molecular binding properties of DNA allows us to selectively detect molecules even in complex biological environments. (more…)

Deadline: March 1, 2020

The ECS Sensor Division Outstanding Achievement Award was established in 1989 to recognize outstanding achievement in research and/or technical contributions to the field of sensors and to encourage work excellence in the field. The award consists of a framed certificate and a $1,000 prize. The next award winner is recognized at the PRiME 2020, in Honolulu, HI, from October 4-9, 2020.

Joseph Wang received the award in 2018. He is Distinguished Professor, SAIC Endowed Chair and Chair in the Department of Nanoengineering at University of California, San Diego; and director of the UCSD Center of Wearable Sensors. His award talk, “Electrochemical Sensors: From Beakers to the Skin and the Mouth,” was presented at the 2018 PRiME meeting in Hawaii.

(more…)

When ECS and IOP Publishing complete their partnership on January 2, 2020, with the launch of the ECS Digital Library on IOPscience, two great institutions will bring over 200 years of experience in excellent scientific publishing to advancing theory and practice at the forefront of electrochemical and solid state science and technology, and allied subjects.

Publications

IOP Publishing—the publishing company of the Institute of Physics—partners with ECS in publishing the Journal of the Electrochemical Society (JES) and the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, and hosting ECS Transactions, ECS Meeting Abstracts, and Interface, as well as hosting ECS’s retired publications archives—ECS Electrochemistry Letters, ECS Solid State Letters, Electrochemical and Solid State Letters, and ECS Proceedings Volumes. (more…)