Goal of the Workshop: The workshop is intended for engineers and/or scientists with no formal background or training in electrochemistry or electrochemical engineering, but who wish to acquire skills to be able to practice professionally in the electrochemical field in industry, academia or national laboratories. The goal of the 3-day workshop is to equip participants with working knowledge of the design and operation of a wide range of electrochemical systems. Participants will attend lectures on electrochemical engineering principles, engage in discussions with instructors, gain hands-on experience on experimentation and modeling of electrochemical systems, and network with world-renowned CWRU faculty and researchers.

Professor Rohan Akolkar  ___________________________

Bio-sketch of the Instructor: Workshop will be instructed by Professor Rohan Akolkar, who is the Milton and Tamar Maltz Professor of Energy Innovation at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). He is an Ohio Eminent Scholar in Advanced Energy Research, serves as Faculty Director of CWRU’s Great Lakes Energy Institute, and holds joint appointment as Chief Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His research spans many areas of electrochemical engineering including electrodeposition, electrometallurgy, and electrochemical materials development for applications in nano-electronics, batteries, and in extraction and refining of critical materials. He has been recognized by CWRU’s Engineering Innovation and Research Awards, Norman Hackerman Young Author Award of ECS, the ECS Electrodeposition Division Research Award, and numerous industry awards during his tenure at Intel. In 2021, he was elected Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors and in 2024, he was elected Fellow of the Electrochemical Society. He has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, and was recently appointed inaugural Editor-in-Chief of ECS Advances. Akolkar teaches a popular course on 'Electrochemical Engineering' to undergraduate and graduate students at CWRU.

The syllabus for this course will include:

1. Introduction to Electrochemical Engineering
2. Electrochemical Thermodynamics
3. Faraday's Law of Electrolysis
4. ionic Electrolytes, and their Behavior under Electric Field
5. Current Density at Electrodes and in Electrolytes
6. Overpotentials: Activation, Ohmic, Concentration/Mass Transport
7. Current Distribution in Electrochemical Cells: Primary, Secondary, Wagner Number
8. Current Distribution under Mass Transport Control
9. Analysis of Polarization Behavior in Electrochemical Systems
10. Multiple Electrode Reactions: Gas Co-evolution;Corrosion, Mixed Potential Theory
11. Transients in Electrochemical Systems: Cottrell and Sand Equation
12. Theory and Practice of Cyclic Voltammetry
13. Numerical Modeling of Electrochemical Systems
14. Porous Electrode theory
15. Special Topics (Molten Salt Electrolysis, Energy Storage, Sustainability)
16. Lab Sessions (Rotating Disk Electrodes, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy, Cyclic Voltammetry)