SYMPOSIUM and ROUND TABLE TOPICS

Catalysis and Electrochemistry have traditionally constituted, together with Thermodynamics, major areas of Physical Chemistry and have contributed very significantly to technological development and to human welfare. In recent years their role is becoming increasingly important for sustainable production of Energy and Chemicals.

At the same time it is becoming increasingly apparent that the two are closely related and that the principles and concepts of Thermodynamics and Catalysis are not limited to chemical systems but are also very important in biology and in subatomic physical processes, such as the formation of hadrons, e.g. protons and neutrons, from their constituents, e.g. quarks, in subatomic subfemtometer distances.

Consequently this symposium will cover, but is not limited to, the following topics:

1. Heterogeneous Catalysis: Structural, physicochemical and functional aspects of surface science and heterogeneous catalysis, including the role of promoters and transport processes, such as diffusion and spillover.
2. Electrochemistry: Structural, compositional, physicochemical and functional aspects of electrocatalysis at the anodes and cathodes of batteries, fuel cells and electrolyzers.
3. Electrochemical Promotion of Catalysis (EPOC): Fundamental and applied investigations of the phenomenon of EPOC or non-Faradaic Electochemical Modification of Catalytic Activity (NEMCA effect) with emphasis in the electrochemical promotion of nanodispersed catalysts and in the development of practical monolithic reactor designs for its utilization in automotive exhaust treatment and in the chemical industry.
4. Concrete carbonation: Experimental investigations and mathematical modeling of the kinetic and transport processes responsible for the carbonation and chlorination of reinforced concrete and limiting the useful lifetime of reinforced concrete structures.
5. Synthesis of chemicals and of composite particles: Modeling of the thermodynamic and kinetic similarities between the catalytic synthesis of chemicals and the synthesis of composite particles, e.g. hadrons such as protons and neutrons, from their lepton constituents in the highly exothermic process known as hadronization, together with evaluation of the practical possibilities for the controlled and sustained utilization of the huge energy released in hadronization, which is of the order of 1 GeV per proton or neutron produced.
6. Gravitational confinement of relativistic particles in microscopic black holes: Modeling of the effect of particle velocity on gravitational mass and on the kinetics of hadronization via gravitational confinement of ultrarelativistic leptons, such as neutrinos, in circular orbits according to the rotating lepton model. Investigations of the role of gravity, special and/or general relativity, and of the Heisenberg uncertainly principle in the creation of miniscule black holes with the properties of protons and neutrons.