Many, if not most, redox reactions are coupled to proton transfers. This includes most common sources of chemical potential energy, from the bioenergetic processes that power cells to the fossil fuel combustion that powers cars. These proton-coupled electron transfer or PCET processes may involve multiple electrons and multiple protons, as in the 4 e–, 4 H+ reduction of dioxygen (O2) to water (eq 1), or can involve one electron and one proton such as the formation of tyrosyl radicals from tyrosine residues (TyrOH) in enzymatic catalytic cycles (eq 2). In addition, many multi-electron, multi-proton processes proceed in one-electron and one-proton steps. Organic reactions that proceed in one-electron steps involve radical intermediates, which play critical roles in a wide range of chemical, biological, and industrial processes. This broad and diverse class of PCET reactions are central to a great many chemical and biochemical processes, from biological catalysis and energy transduction, to bulk industrial chemical processes, to new approaches to solar energy conversion. PCET is therefore of broad and increasing interest, as illustrated by this issue and a number of other recent reviews.

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Thermochemistry of Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Reagents and its Implications

BRUNO LATOUR, The pasteurization of France, trans. Alan Sheridan and John Law, Cambridge, Mass., and London, Harvard University Press, 1988, 8vo, pp. 273, £23.95. GEORGES CANGUILHEM, Ideology and rationality in the history of the life sciences, trans. Arthur Goldhammer, Cambridge, Mass., and London, The MIT Press, 1988, 8vo, pp. xi, 160, £17.95. Bruno Latour has written a wonderfully funny book about himself. It is difficult, however, to summarize a text committed to the view that \"Nothing is, by itself, either reducible or irreducible to anything else\", (p. 158). In Latour's opinion, the common view that sociologists of knowledge and scientists are opposed is incorrect. Both groups, according to Latour, are the authors of identical mistakes: reductionism and, relatedly, attempting to conjoin (in the instance of the sociologist) science and society, or (in the instance of the scientist) keeping them apart. For Latour, there are only forces or resistances which different groups encounter and attempt to conquer by forming alliances. These groups, however, are not simply the actors of conventional sociology. They include, for example, microbes, the discovery of the Pasteurians, with which they have populated our world and which we must now take notice of in any encounter or war in which we engage. War is a fundamental metaphor for Latour, since in a war or a battle clashes of armies are later called the \"victory\" of a Napoleon or a Kutuzov. Likewise, he argues, the Pasteurization of France can be viewed as a battle, with its field and its myriad contestants, in which opposing sides attempted to mould and coerce various forces of resistance. Strangely, he points out, the outcome of this huge battle, the labour and struggle of these masses, we attribute to the scientific genius of Pasteur. Pasteur's genius, however, says Latour, lay not in science (for this could be yet another way of making science and society distinct) but as strategist. Pasteur was able to cross disciplinary lines, recruiting allies to laboratory science by persuading them that they were recruiting him. This was possible because, like the armies in battle, they had already done the work of the general. Thus Pasteur's microbiology, which might conventionally be seen as a whole new science, can also be construed as a brilliant reformulation of all that preceded it and made it possible. Hygienists seized on the work of the Pasteurians and the two rapidly became powerful allies because \"The time that they [the hygienists] had made was now working for them\" (p. 52). French physicians, on the other hand, resisted recruitment, since for them it meant enslavement. Finally, however, they recruited the Pasteurians to their enterprise. Pasteurian public health was turned into a triumph of medicine. It is impossible to read this book and not substitute Latour for Pasteur. At the head of his own army, increasingly enlarged by the recruitment of allies, Latour now presents us, in his own language, with something we have made, or at least made possible. The cynic might say, using the old jibe against sociologists, that Latour has explained to us in his own language everything we knew anyway. Retorting thus, however, would be to unselfconsciously make an ally of Latour and miss the point by a narrow margin that might as well be a million miles. Latour says all this much more clearly (and certainly more wittily) than any review. Read it, but beware; in spite of Latour's strictures about irreducibility, the text is not what it seems. This is a recruitment brochure: Bruno needs you. Among the many historians whom Latour convicts by quotation of mistaking the general for the army, Pasteur for all the forces at work in French society, is Georges Canguilhem. Latour uses two quotes from Canguilhem, both taken from the original French version of Ideology and rationality in the life sciences, first published in 1977. Reading Canguilhem after Latour induces a feeling akin to culture shock. Astonishingly, Canguilhem seems almost Anglo-American. Anyone familiar with Canguilhem's epistemological universe would hardly be surprised to discover that Latour finds in it perspectives different from his own. After all, Canguilhem remains committed to the epistemologically distinct entity science or, better still, sciences. Likewise he employs distinctions between science and ideology, as in Spencerian ideology and Darwinian science, which will seem familiar, possibly jaded to English-reading eyes. His text is liberally seeded with unLatourian expressions, including injunctions to distinguish \"between ideology and science\" (p. 39), lamentations that eighteenth-century medicine \"squandered its energy in the erection of systems\" (p. 53), rejoicing that physiology \"liberated itself' from classical anatomy (p. 54), and regret that \"Stahl's influence ... seriously impeded experimental

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Bruno Latour, The pasteurization of France , trans. Alan Sheridan and John Law, Cambridge, Mass., and London, Harvard University Press, 1988, 8vo, pp. 273, £23.95. - Georges Canguilhem, Ideology and rationality in the history of the life sciences , trans. Arthur Goldhammer, Cambridge, Mass., and London, The MIT Press, 1988, 8vo, pp. xi, 160, £17.95.

Molecular Catalysts for Water Oxidation

Tremendous efforts have been devoted to the development of electrode materials, electrolytes, and separators of energy-storage devices to address the fundamental needs of emerging technologies such as electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. However, binders, as an important component of energy-storage devices, are yet to receive similar attention. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) has been the dominant binder in the battery industry for decades despite several well-recognized drawbacks, i.e., limited binding strength due to the lack of chemical bonds with electroactive materials, insufficient mechanical properties, and low electronic and lithium-ion conductivities. The limited binding function cannot meet inherent demands of emerging electrode materials with high capacities such as silicon anodes and sulfur cathodes. To address these concerns, in this review we divide the binding between active materials and binders into two major mechanisms: mechanical interlocking and interfacial b...

Exploring Chemical, Mechanical, and Electrical Functionalities of Binders for Advanced Energy-Storage Devices

Methods of soil P analysis in archaeology

Electrochemistry in Retrospect: An Overview Wollaston's Microtechniques for the Electrolysis of Water and Electrochemical Incandescence: A Pioneer in Miniaturization Michael Faraday's First Law of Electrochemistry: How Context Develops New Knowledge The Universal Agent of Power: James Prescott Joule, Electricity, and the Equivalent of Heat The Contribution of Electrochemistry to the Development of Chemical Kinetics A Reappraisal of Arrenhius' Theory of Partial Dissociation of Electrolytes Historical Highlights in Transference Number Research Genesis of the Nernst Equation The Choice of the Hydrogen Electrode as the Base for the Electromotive Series Pursuit of the Elusive Single Ion Activity Historical Development of the Understanding of Charge-Transfer Processes in Electrochemistry William Lash Miller History of Organic Electrosynthesis Anodic Electroorganic Chemistry and Natural Products Oxygen Electrode: History, Design, and Applications Bioelectrochemistry-Before and After Development of Electrochemical Instrumentation Development of the pH Meter Development of the Glass Electrode pH Glass Electrode and Its Mechanism Ion-Sensitive Electrodes: From Glasses to Crystals and Crowns Modification of Solid Electrodes in Electroanalytical Chemistry, 1978-1988 With the Drop of Mercury to the Nobel Prize Past and Future of the Dropping Electrode Development of Pulse Polarography and Voltammetry Fortuitous Experiments: Discoveries of Underpotential and of Quantitive Anodic Stripping Voltammetry Coulometric Titrimetry History of Electroanalytical Chemistry in Molten Salts Electrodeless Conductivity Spectroelectrochemistry Using Transparent Electrodes: An Anecdotal History of the Early Years Borrowing From Industry: Edgar Fahs Smith's Rotating Anode and Double Cup Mercury Cathode Henry J.S. Sand (1873-1944), A Well-Remembered Tutor Industrial Electrochemistry Industrial Diaphragrams and Membranes Gibbs, LeSeur, and Willson: Pioneers of Industrial Electrochemistry History of Electrochemistry in Mexico The Search for Portable Electricity: History of the High Energy Density Batteries Evolution of Electrochemical Reactor Systems for Metal Recovery and Pollution Control Electrochemical Machining: Development and Application

Electrochemistry, past and present

Archaeological Chemistry: Organic, Inorganic, and Biochemical Analysis.

The technical literature of the Middle Ages abounds with recipes for the synthesis of blue pigments The variations in these recipes are traced through manuscripts spanning seven centuries, and it is found that they fall into several categories depending upon the nature and the chemical form of the starting materials In the case where the chief starting material is copper, there seems to be a chronological progression from the use of elemental copper to copper(II) to copper(II) plus complexing agents

Synthetic blue pigments: ninth to sixteenth centuries. I. Literature

Introduction: Colors, Natural and Synthetic, in the Ancient World.- Discovery of the Physics of Color.- The Chemical Causes of Color.- Colorant Usage from Antiquity to the Perkin Era.- Beyond Perkin.- Major Analytical Techniques Based on Color: Volumetric Analysis Chromatography Spectroscopy Color Measurement.- Color on the Biological and Biochemical Front.- Finale: Color in Foods, Photochemistry, Photoluminescence, Pharmaceuticals, Fireworks, Fun and the Future.

Mary Virginia Orna

Papers

Electrochemistry, past and present

Archaeological Chemistry: Organic, Inorganic, and Biochemical Analysis.

Synthetic blue pigments: ninth to sixteenth centuries. I. Literature

The Chemical History of Color

The Lost Elements