This volume presents the proceedings of the 6th Kurt Schwabe Symposium that was a continuation of successful meetings in Tata (Hungary, 1993), Dresden (Germany, 1997), Zakopane (Poland, 2000), Helsinki (2004) and Erlangen (Germany, 2009). The symposium was devoted to Prof. Dr. Kurt Schwabe (1905–1983) outstanding electrochemists working in the field of corrosion science and engineering, sensors techniques and fuel cells. The conference held in Cracow, Poland, on September 2–6, 2013, and organized by AGH-University of Science and Technology and the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Warsaw.

The subject of the symposium was the surface analysis and material engineering in corrosion science and electrochemical technologies, with a particular focus on the following: preparation and degradation of new materials for electrochemical science and technology (metal oxides, conducting polymers, hybrid materials systems, functional composites including catalysts for fuel and photocells), development of materials for electrochemical sensors, surface modifications of metals and semiconductors, electrochemistry of metals and semiconductors in organic solvents, ionic liquids and supercritical fluids, mechanisms of corrosion, passivity and breakdown processes, environmentally assisted failure, corrosion modelling, monitoring and protection, microbiological corrosion and biofouling. Both fundamental and applied aspects of research were discussed. The symposia provided an overview of the state of the art in this field, showed the latest achievements and perspectives in the area of functional materials. All sessions were well attended.

The scientific program consisted of six plenary lectures, nine invited lectures delivered by internationally renowned experts and 38 oral contributions as well as 22 poster presentations covering some of the most important and exciting topics in corrosion, interfaces and nanostructures research. The conference was attended by 74 participants from the following 11 countries: Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, United Kingdom and United States of America.

This present special issue of Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry contains a selection of 22 papers presented during the meeting. The organizers and guest editors would like kindly to thank all those who attended the conference and helped to continue the tradition of Kurt Schwabe Symposium as well as to all the authors who submitted high-quality articles and the reviewers for their contributions to assess and improve the submitted manuscripts in order to keep the high publication standards of the journal.