The emergence of automation in electrochemistry

Abstract

Automated electrochemistry is emerging as a powerful tool to accelerate discoveries in important fields such as energy storage, catalysis, electrosynthesis, and electrochemical sensing, among others. Automated electrochemistry platforms (AEPs) offer the ability to increase the throughput of electrochemical experiments, reduce the workload of manual experimenters, and offer opportunities for enhanced reproducibility and transferability of experimental protocols. This review explores the design, capabilities, and applications of AEPs, highlighting platforms constructed with various fluid handling, motion control, and signal multiplexing capabilities for a variety of applications. Further, we highlight platforms that integrate automated synthesis and electrochemical characterization and we discuss the role of Bayesian optimization in autonomous experiments, enabling both performance optimization and mechanistic insight. Finally, we offer an outlook on the potential future directions of automated electrochemistry.