11th ECHEMS - Electrochemistry in renewable energy based on molecular mechanisms

Providing a growing world population with a sustainable source of energy while avoiding disposal and storage problems with adverse effects on other natural conditions for mankind remains one of the grand challenges for the foreseeable future. The recent development in Germany and neighboring countries as well as experiences elsewhere have demonstrated that it might indeed appear feasible within one generation to supply the total amount of energy needed for a highly industrialized economy exclusively by wind and solar power. However, those energies can only be harvested intermittently and demand and supply follow disconnected temporal patterns.

This meeting will discuss future contributions of molecular electrochemistry towards finding new approaches for efficient utilization of renewable energies and a general understanding of the respective energy conversion systems.

Topics include but are not restricted to

• New electrochemistry for redox flow batteries
• Electrocatalytic activation of small molecules (CO₂, NH₃, N₂, methane, methanol, H₂O, O₂, ...)
• Molecular reactions in batteries for energy storage or as side reaction in degradation schemes or SEI formation
• Molecular electrochemistry in new fluid electrolyte systems for extreme potentials
• Learning from mother nature (energy conversions at liquid-liquid interfaces, interfacing biology to electrodes, energetically autonomous nanosystems and electrochemistry in synthetic biology)
• Charge transfer reactions of molecules in photoelectrochemical systems (dye-sensitized electrodes, molecular mechanisms of charge separation)

Due to the limited size of the meeting with a maximum of 100 participants, the very established fields of gas phase reaction, established polymer electrolyte fuel cell catalysis and ion insertion materials for lithium ion batteries without explicit connection to molecular transformations will not be considered. The meeting will be conducted as a single session meeting with plenary lectures, contributed lectures and poster session. (program)