[Onai]

Hello to all the intelligent chemists and scientists who frequent here!

I have a simple question, what sort of actual real life jobs deal with the field and study of electrochemistry?

The idea of electrochemistry and and electricity is very intriguing to me and any help would be appreciated!

[enahs]

Are you talking chemistry research jobs, or industrial/commercial jobs?

The industrial/commercial is huge. Other then the obvious of working for a battery manufacturing company.

Electrolytic process is the foundation for modern metallurgy, as many of the metals and alloys we use today could not be produced in the quantities and at cost without electrochemistry.

It is also very useful and probably in the top 3 ways for manufacturing bulk chemicals for industry, such as producing pure silicone for industry use (everything from computer chips to glass). A good proportion of the metals on the periodic chart are produced in bulk via means that incorporates electrochemistry for industry, as well as to produce non elemental chemical compounds.

Those are, however industrial jobs, not research.

There is important use for it in research to. Making/improving modern metal alloys, and there is currently substantial research in carbon nanotubes and fullerenes with regard to electrochemistry, along with many other areas being researched.

It is a very practical field of chemistry to study if you are looking for a industrial/commercial job, and there is room for research.

[Onai]

That certainly clarifies things a bit here enahs! Thank you for disclosing that information, which is greatly appreciated here. Now I will have to research what metallurgy exactly is!

[enahs]

If you are interested in the industrial/commercial side of chemistry, then I would look at a Chemical Engineer degree, or if your school does not offer that get some kind of system engineering degree as a minor. There are many other areas involved in electrochemistry too, that I did not mention in both industrial and academics.

You might want to check out:
http://www.electrochem.org/
And here for more information on electrochemistry as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrochemistry
Here is info on the metallurgy (again, just one of the many aspects that use electrochemistry in commercial/industrial application):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgical_engineering


Note, if your desire is to pursue a industrial/commercial job involving chemistry, just FYI that at just a bachelors level most of your job opportunities that pay decent money will be in quality control type applications. Which is perfectly fine, and required, but I would not expect to get much past that or be promoted much by the company your work for with just a bachelors.

There are other types of jobs, of course, that is just a very typical job for a Chemistry major/Chemical Engineer with just a bachelors.

[Onai]

Ha! yet more information! Appreciation directed towards your way from here once again!

It will take awhile for me to digest the bulk of the information you provided enahs. I am not sure what sort of job I wish to pursue yet although electrochemistry is defnitely stimulating. -.^

So electrochemistry is really a general field of study with many specialized fields? (metallurgy being one of them)

[Borek]

Throw in analytical applications - ion selective electrodes plus numerous variants of voltammetry.

[P-man]

Working in R&D for a fuel cell company could count as working in electrochemistry, no?

[mick348]

That certainly clarifies things a bit here enahs! Thank you for disclosing that information, which is greatly appreciated here. Now I will have to research what metallurgy exactly is!

Electrochemistry is also important in metallurgy with respect to corrosion.  There is research devoted to trying to understand how metals corrode, and how to prevent this from happening, or at least to slow it down.  Most corrosion is essentially electrochemical in nature.

If you were to look at metallurgical programs for school, I would look under "materials science and engineering."  My impression is that metallurgy has been absorbed into the materials science departments at most schools (materials science also typically includes ceramics, polymers, and electronic materials).

[DevaDevil]

Hi, welcome to the board.

I am working on my Ph.D. in electrocatalysis now, and as P-Man suggested, it envelopes mainly Fuel-cell reactions: hydrogen and CO oxidation and oxygen reduction.
I work in a National Lab now (DOE), so not industry, but I imagine this type of research will be interesting for the industry once fuel cells are ready to be marketed. Most probably R&D centers are all over it already.

As for industry; metallurgy (etching) and batteries are the main parts for now; with corrosion prevention an important par as well.
But what about things as e.g. chlorine production? Electrochemistry as well.

Plenty of industry going on, but you're right that it is a specialized field.