The 48th Heyrovský Discussion on Progress in Electrochemistry at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces and Liquid Membranes

Since 1967 the J. Heyrovský Institute (formerly of Polarography, now of Physical Chemistry) of the Czech Academy of Sciences organizes every year in May or June a special meeting, called Heyrovský Discussion, dealing with various electrochemical topics. This year the Heyrovský Discussion, which was held at the Castle Třešť, June 14–19, dealt with electrochemical processes at the polarized liquid-liquid interfaces and liquid membranes. Electrochemistry at liquid-liquid interfaces was also the main theme of the previous Heyrovský Discussions in 1984, 1988, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2004, and 2009. The meeting was attended by 48 scientists coming from Argentina (3), China (2), Czech Republic (6), Denmark (1), Finland (2), France (1), Hungary (1), Ireland (2), Japan (13), Poland (1), Sweden (1), Switzerland (4), United Kingdom (4), and U.S.A. (5). Program was divided into 7 half-day sessions focused on: (1) Novel methodologies and approaches, (2) Applied aspects, (3) Interfacial layers and films, (4) Catalytic phenomena, (5) Biomimetic processes, (6) Processes at microand nanoscale, and (7) General aspects. Following seven introductory lectures were given in these sessions: (1) A. A. Kornyshev (Imperial College, London, United Kingdom): ITIES for novel selfassembling plasmonic meta-materials: From ultra-sensitive sensors to variable mirrors. (2) T. Kakiuchi (Konan University, Kobe, Japan): Significance and meaning of single ion activity in electroanalytical chemistry. (3) E. Bakker (University of Geneve, Geneve, Switzerland): Thin layer electro-chemistry with liquid membranes. (4) H. Girault (EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland): Catalytic phenomena at liquid-liquid interfaces: Functional nanorafts. (5) S. Amemiya (University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, U.S.A.): Voltammetric mechanism and application of ionophore-facilitated ion transfer as biomimetics. (6) M. Mirkin (CUNY, New York, U.S.A.): Nano-ITIES: Reagent delivery and mechanistic studies. (7) I. Benjamin (University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, U.S.A.): Molecular level insight into reactivity at the liquid/liquid interface.