Specialized electrochemical education is a somewhat ambiguous term, as explained in this article. Until 2022, various types of advanced courses were tested at the Dept of Electrochemistry of Moscow University (MSU). The traditional structure remained unchanged for many years when Prof. Damaskin led these advanced courses at MSU. It assumed two main parts: ‘double layer’ (effectively, thermodynamics of charged interfaces) and electrode kinetics. This approach is good as a starting point, but insufficient in general. Moreover, this structure assumed that electrolyte solutions and general electrochemical thermodynamics have been previously taught in the general chemistry lectures, which is formally true, but ‘taught’ does not mean ‘learned’.
A more flexible approach is having these two main parts, albeit slightly shorter, in combination with more specialized elective courses that included (at MSU): condensed ionic systems; electron transfer (also homogeneous); electrode kinetics in specific devices; in situ spectroscopic techniques; nanofabrication; seminar on scientific literature. All these courses are multidisciplinary to some extent. Jointly with Profs Andrey Kh. Vorob’ev and Vladimir I. Feldman, we also ran a completely multidisciplinary course at the boundary of chemical physics and physical chemistry. Some web versions of these courses are still available here (in Russian).
The most important aspect of an effective education is solving less standard problems, which should be part of any advanced course. We plan to translate the most representative courses and problems and share them at this web page.