Kinetics of the electrode processes is a huge part of electrochemistry, which includes the electrode processes of various complexity. Lab name originates from the title of the first textbook on electrochemical kinetics (A.N. Frumkin, V.S. Bagotsky, Z.A. Iofa, B.N. Kabanov, Kinetics of the electrode processes, Moscow, Moscou Univ. Publ, 1952). A principle idea of this (still relevant) textbook is the account for the interface (reaction layer) structure in the quantitative consideration of electrochemical reaction rate. The specific features of inhomogeneous charge and substance distribution in reaction layer can induce the effects up to the orders of magnitude on the rate of electrochemical charge transfer.
There were two ‘Frumkin’ periods of the development of this principle idea: at the Department of Electrochemistry
– «hydrogen» period, started by Frumkin’s pioneering article Wasserstoffüberspannung und Struktur der Doppelschicht (1933), with the key role played by the prominent experimental electrochemist Professor Zinoviy A. Iofa (bio in Russian).
– «anions» period, which allowed to illustrate even more impressively the key aspect of electrostatic reactant-electrode interactions by experiment (the last Frumkin’s anion paper(1975)): for anions reduction at the negatively charged electrodes, the effects of electrostatics and reaction free energy are qualitatively opposite, resulting in appearance of non-monotonous polarization curves.
Frumkin tradition was later continued by the studies of the elementary act of charge transfer with application of molecular-level models for reaction layers. This research branch includes both experimental (choice of specific model reactants and surfaces of certain geometry) and computational (combining the experiment and molecular modeling) approaches. Currently going research is closely linked to the theory of charge transfer. It was started in active cooperation with late Alexander M. Kuznetsov.
The lab is also dealing with kinetics of complex electrodeposition processes as regarded to highly relevant applications: nanostructuring (page in Russian) and fabrication of the materials for electrochemical devices.
Contacts: Galina A. Tsirlina, tsir@elch.chem.msu.ru