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This year, we have more anniversaries linked to this personality. The future scientist was born in Leipzig in 1785 into a Baltic German family of landowners, grew up in Gedučiai (now Pakruojis district), was extremely well educated, studied in Leipzig and Paris, and travelled throughout Europe. Although he died young, at the age of 38, he made a significant impact on the world of science and his legacy remains important to this day.

 

Grotthuss wrote 80 research articles, comments and letters to the editors of scientific journals. In 1805, he published the first theory of electrolysis and ion conductance, and ten years later he published the first comprehensive treatment of photochemistry analysis.

 

 

 

"This conference is dedicated to honouring one of Lithuania's earliest and perhaps most famous scientists. His most important contributions are related to the study of electrolysis and ion conductance - in other words, how charges move in materials. Today, this is the basis for many fields, from energy conversion and catalysis to electrochemistry and electroanalysis, for example in the study of biological systems.

 

Ion transport and charge movement are the foundation of electrochemistry and much of chemistry. This is why this conference brings together researchers from a wide variety of fields, but all of them are united by this common theme," says Dr Linas Vilčiauskas, Head of the FTMC Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, the main organiser of the conference.

 

The event brought together chemical experts from Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and other countries.

 

 

 

One of the hot topics at the conference was electrochemistry (a field of science that investigates the relationship between electricity and chemical transformations), which is being developed by L. Vilčiauskas himself. According to the scientist, this field is of particular importance when it comes to a greener, more sustainable future:

 

"If we want to electrify everything, this is only possible with electrochemical devices: batteries, fuel cells, photoelectrochemical cells, catalytic reactors, etc.

 

Renewable energy without electrochemistry would be impossible. Three aspects are important here: productivity, size and efficiency. Electrochemical devices can range in size from miniature devices (e.g. drug delivery systems or fuel cells implanted in pacemakers to use glucose in the blood as a fuel source) to giant battery parks.

 

They are also much more efficient than, for example, the internal combustion engines used in conventional cars, which have a limited efficiency and rarely exceed 30%. At the same time, electrochemical devices can theoretically operate at up to 100% efficiency," says the conference organiser.