Introduction

Abstract

Properties of substances highly depend on temperature. As an extreme example, water can be considered. We know very well the behaviour of “normal” water, but it is less familiar that water heated up near to its critical temperature behaves like a completely different solvent. Subcritical water and supercritical water are unpolar liquids and able to dissolve fats. Why should not we utilise the extraordinary properties of such solvents in electrochemistry? The methods presented in this book further down will show that we can do experiments of this kind even with everyday instruments, without application of external pressure or spending a lot of heat energy. Examples for the novel experimental facilities offered by the scientific field named here “modern thermoelectrochemistry” or alternatively “in situ thermoelectrochemistry” will be presented in this book.