• Novel trends in the theory and the modeling of electrocatalytic reactions

Electrochemical reactions especially in electrocatalysis for hydrogen and oxygen electrode reactions are intrinsically more complicated than reactions in the gas and other homogeneous phases or in surface science, because they take place at the interface between two conducting media, and even a simple model has to encompass a fair amount of particles. However, due to the ever increasing computer power and to progress in theoretical methods, the field of electrocatalysis has become very active during the last few years, and there have been significant advances in our understanding of elementary processes at a molecular level. Amongst the methods that are being employed are quantum statistics, density functional theory, ab initio or force-field molecular dynamics, and Monte Carlo simulations.

• Novel trends and achievements in subsurface and nanostructured catalyst characterization

New sophisticated methods and apparatus for nanostructured electrocatalysts surface and structural characterization in correlation with their activity for the feedback in their further systematic development and advances are developed; these include in-situ microscopy and synchrotron-based techniques (including X-ray absorption methods), electron microscopy (including electron tomography and high-resolution TEM, STEM, and analytical electron microscopy methods such as EDXS and EELS), and recently developed aberration-corrected microscopy-based techniques.

• New trends in the novel type of advanced electrocatalysts

Such trends include nanostructured core-shell electrocatalysts; hypo-hyper-d-d-interactive intermetallic phases of transition elements employed as specific electrocatalysts; interactive-supported metallic (individual or intermetallic phases) upon single or composite altervalent hypo-d-oxide supports; nanostructured bronze-type electrocatalysts relative to their alterpolar reversible interchanges with corresponding hydrated state of catalysts; composite nanostructured hyper-d-oxides interactive supported upon hypo-d-oxide carriers; any other novel approach in electrocatalyst tailoring.

All significant accompanying trends and effects of importance in electrocatalysis, such as the spillover effect, dopant additives, acid and alkaline membrane improvements, and their interrelations and feedback effects are also welcome.

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