QUANTITATIVE ELECTROCHEMISTRY IN POORLY CONDUCTING MEDIA

电化学具有广泛的重要性和影响。例如，你天花板上的一氧化碳（烟雾）探测器是一个小型电化学电池。糖尿病患者每天用来监测血糖水平的一次性条形传感器是电化学的。生产各种各样的材料，如尼龙、铝和氯，每种情况下都是电解的。此外，这门学科对能源储存和转化（燃料电池、太阳能电池、电池等）、生物学（离子传输、神经脉冲传输、光合作用、呼吸作用等）和纳米技术（纳米传感器、分子线、纳米马达等）等领域的基础知识有着至关重要的支撑作用。对电流和电压之间关系的严格和定量研究在以下介质中得到了很好的发展：首先，导电是容易的；其次，系统和电极的物理尺寸是微米（约百万分之一码）或更大。在液体介质的特殊情况下，这第一个限制要求存在大量离子。这样，这个问题就导致了上文所述的重大技术影响。本建议的目标是了解导电不良介质中的电化学，以便电化学技术的力量可以在没有上述限制的情况下实现。也就是说，我们寻求在任何介质（有机溶剂，油，任何生物流体，…）中促进电化学，同时将产生能够在纳米尺度（比微米尺度小千分之一）上严格分析电化学的理论。我们看到了广泛而多样的影响。工作计划建议将新的基于计算机的理论和模拟的发展与使用各种电极和溶剂的各种模型实验联系起来，以建立和验证前者作为广泛应用的平台。

Electrochemistry is of wide importance and impact. For example the carbon monoxide (smoke) detector in your ceiling is a small electrochemical cell. The disposable strip sensors that diabetics use daily to monitor blood sugar levels are electrochemical. The production of materials as diverse as nylon, aluminium and chlorine is in each case electrolytic. Moreover the subject crucially underpins fundamental aspects of areas such as energy storage and transformation (fuel cells, solar cells, batteries, ..), biology (ion transport, transmission of nerve impulses, photosynthesis, respiration ...) and nanotechnology (nanosensors, molecular wires, nanomotors,...).The rigorous and quantitative study of the relationship between electrical currents an voltages is well developed in the case of media where, first, electrical conduction is easy and second, where the physical dimensions of the system and electrodes are those of micrometres (ca one millionth of a yard) or greater. In the specific case of liquid media this first restriction requires the presence of significant quantities of ions. In this way the subject has led to the major technological impacts illustrated above. The target of the present proposal is the understanding of electrochemistry in poorly conductive media so that the power of electrochemical techniques can be realised without the above mentioned restrictions. That is we seek to facilitate electrochemistry in any media (organic solvents, oil, any biological fluid, ..) and at the same time will generate theory which enable the rigorous anaylsis of electrochemistry at the nanoscale (one thousandth times smaller than the micron scale). We see wide and diverse impact.The program of work suggested links the development of new computer based theory and simulation with diverse model experiments using a range of electrodes and solvents so as to establish and vailidate the former as a platform for broad application.