doi: 10.4152/pea.201306289

Special Issue dedicated to the XVIII Meeting of the Portuguese Electrochemical Society - A glimpse into the electrochemical research in Portugal

Luís Moreira Gonçalves^* and José António Rodrigues

Requimte - Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal

These special issues (n.os 5 and 6 of Vol. 31) of Portugaliae Electrochimica Acta include full papers of several communications presented at the XVIII Meeting of the Portuguese Electrochemical Society, which was held in Porto from the 25th to the 27th of March of 2013 (Figure 1).

The Scientific Committee was composed by: Ana Carreira Lopes (Universidade da Beira Interior), Ana Cristina Oliveira (Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro), Angela Molina (Universidad de Murcia), António Rangel (Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto), Armando Pombeiro (Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa), Beatriz Quinaz (Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade do Porto), Carlos Pereira (Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto), Cristina Delerue-Matos (Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto), Cristina Freire (Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto), Jirí Barek (Prírodovedecká fakulta, Univerzita Karlova v Praze), João Rodrigues (Universidade da Madeira), José Moura (Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Jorge Ginja Teixeira (Universidade de évora), Jorge Palma Correia (Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa), José António Rodrigues (Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto), José Costa Lima (Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade do Porto), Lucia Sales Mascaro (Universidade Federal de São Carlos), Lifeng Liu (International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory), Luísa Martins (Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa), Manuel Blázquez (Universidad de Córdoba), Mário Ferreira (Universidade de Aveiro), Paulo Roberto Bueno (Universidade Estadual Paulista, Araraquara), Pier Parpot (Universidade do Minho), Ramón Nóvoa (Universidade de Vigo), Thomas Doneux (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Victor Lobo (Universidade de Coimbra).

The Congress brought together many researchers in electrochemistry from Portugal and from other 13 countries. During three scientific and social intensive days, several topics were discussed, ranging from electroanalysis, catalysis, corrosion and novel theoretical aspects of modern electrochemistry. The meeting included six full lectures of leading electrochemists: Professor Richard G. Compton (University of Oxford, UK), Professor Jirí Barek (Prírodovedecká fakulta, Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Czech Republic), Professor António Cunha and Doctor Aleksey Yaremchenko (both from Universidade de Aveiro) and Professor Victor Lobo and Professor José Simões Redinha (both from Universidade de Coimbra).

In the closing balance, the organizing committee felt that all the organization efforts were rewarded by the engagement of all and, therefore, wishes to express its gratitude to all the participants and all sponsors that made this meeting possible (Figure 2).

Moreover, the organizing committee wishes to thank Sociedade Portuguesa de Eletroquímica and its president, Professor Armando Pombeiro, for all the institutional support and confidence. Finally, we wish to express our gratitude to Portugaliae Electrochimica Acta and to its Editor, Professor V.M.M. Lobo, to the editorial board and to all the reviewers, for making possible the publication of this special issue, and for helping enhance and assure the quality of the published articles.

^*Corresponding author. E-mail address: luis.goncalves@fc.up.pt