Professor Nagy's current interest is in educational outreach activities. He is editing Electrochemistry Encyclopedia containing popular-science style articles describing many aspects of electrochemistry, and the Electrochemistry Dictionary containing simple and brief definitions of words and phrases used often in electrochemistry. These are available freely to any interested user on the internet.

Application of Synchrotron X-ray Techniques to Electrochemistry

The recent availability of synchrotron x-ray sources make possible the "in-situ" investigation of chemical and structural changes occurring on electrode surfaces. The electrode need not be removed from the operating cell and can remain under full potential control during these measurements. Synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques were used to study electrochemical systems ranging from sub-monolayer level phenomena, through nanometer size phenomena, to submicron size phenomena; that is, covering the full range of the "interphase" at an electrode surface including both the solid and the solution sides. The systems studied include among others:

1. incipient oxidation/reduction of platinum single crystal surfaces,

2. sub-monolayer/monolayer level oxidation/reduction of ruthenium dioxide single crystal surfaces,

3. copper passivation/depassivation, and

4. anodic formation of porous silicon and silicon dioxide layers.

Kinetics of Fast Electrode Reactions

Electrocatalytic effects of trace anion impurities were determined for a number of systems. It was demonstrated that catalysis can occur at concentration levels below the sensitivity of most analytical techniques, consequently previous measured rate constants can be many order-of-magnitudes larger than the true values. Fast heterogeneous charge-transfer reactions were also investigated in high-temperature molten salts and in high-temperature/high-pressure aqueous solutions using DC transient techniques.

Numerical Modeling of Transient Electrochemical Measuring Techniques

Numerical computer models of a variety of DC transient techniques (potentiostatic, galvanostatic, and coulostatic single- and multiple-pulse techniques) were developed incorporating many aspects usually ignored. The rise time of pulses, the potential dependence of the charge-transfer coefficient and the double layer capacitance were all accounted for. These models are useful for determining the applicability limits of the techniques, for carrying out numerical data analysis, and for determining the reliability (confidence limits) of the calculated parameters.

Z. Nagy and H. You, "Applictions of synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques to electrochemistry," in "Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry," R.E. White, Editor,  Springer, New York, in preparation.

Z. Nagy, "Electrochemistry at synchrotrons," in Historical Perspectives on the Evolution of Electrochemical Tools, (ECS Special Volume SV2002-29) J. Leddy, V. Birss, and P. Vanysek, Editors, Ch. 14, pp 235-240, The Electrochemical Society, Pennington, New Jersey, 2004.

Z. Nagy, "Trace anion catalysis of outer-sphere heterogeneous charge-transfer reactions," in "Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry," R.E. White, B.E. Conway, and C.G. Vayenas, Editors, Vol. 37, Ch. 5, Kluver/Plenum Press, New York, 2004.

T.E. Lister, Y.V. Tolmachev, Y. Chu, W.G. Cullen, H. You, R. Yonco, and Z. Nagy, "Cathodic activation of RuO2 single crystal surfaces for hydrogen-evolution reaction," J. Electroanal. Chem., 554-555, 71 (2003).

Z. Nagy and H. You, "Applications of surface x-ray scattering to electrochemistry problems," Electrochim. Acta, 47, 3037 (2002).

T.E. Lister, Y. Chu, W. Cullen, H. You, J.M. Mitchell, R.M. Yonco, and Z. Nagy,  "Electrochemical and x-ray scattering study of well defined RuO2 single crystal surfaces," J. Electroanal. Chem., 254-255, 201 (2002).

Y. S. Chu, T. E. Lister, W. G. Cullen, H. You, and Z. Nagy, "Commensurate water monolayer on rutile RuO2(110): a surface x-ray scattering study with electrochemical reduction/oxidation," Phys. Rev. Lett., 86, 3364 (2001).

I. C. Stefan, Y. V. Tolmachev, Z. Nagy, M. Minkoff, D. R. Merrill, J. T. Mortimer, and D. A. Scherson, "Theoretical analysis of the pulse-clamp method as applied to neural stimulating electrodes," J. Electrochem. Soc., 148, E73 (2001).

Y. S. Chu, H. You, J. A. Tanzer, T. E. Lister, and Z. Nagy, "Surface resonance x-ray scattering observation of core-electron binding-energy shifts of Pt(111)-surface atoms during electrochemical oxidation," Phys. Rev. Lett., 83, 552 (1999).

J. W. Halley, B. B. Smith, S. Walbran, L. A. Curtiss, R. O. Rigney, A. Sutjianto, N. C. Hung, R. M. Yonco, and Z. Nagy, "Theory and experiment on the cuprous-cupric electron transfer rate at a copper electrode," J. Chem. Phys., 110, 6538 (1999).

Z. Nagy, "DC electrochemical techniques for the measurement of corrosion rates," in "Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry,'' J. O'M. Bockris, B. E. Conway, and R. E. White, Editors, Vol. 25, Ch. 3, Plenum Press, New York, 1993.

L. A. Curtiss, J. W. Halley, J. Hautman, N. C. Hung, Z. Nagy, Y.-J. Rhee, and R. M Yonco, "Temperature dependence of the heterogeneous ferrous-ferric electron transfer reaction rate: comparison of experiment and theory," J. Electrochem. Soc., 138, 2032 (1991).

Z. Nagy, "DC relaxation techniques for the characterization of fast electrode reactions," in "Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry,'' R. E. White, J. O'M. Bockris, and B. E. Conway, Editors, Vol. 21, Ch. 6, Plenum Press, New York, 1990.

N. C. Hung and Z. Nagy, "Kinetics of the ferrous/ferric electrode reaction in the absence of chloride catalysis," J. Electrochem. Soc., 134, 2215 (1987).

J. L. Settle and Z. Nagy, "Metal deposition-dissolution in molten halides: on the question of measurability of very fast electrode reaction rates," J. Electrochem. Soc., 132, 1619 (1985).

Z. Nagy, "Electrochemical synthesis of inorganic compounds. A bibliography," Plenum Press, New York, 1985.

J. O'M. Bockris and Z. Nagy, "Electrochemistry for ecologists," Plenum Press, New York, 1974.