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In the summer issue of Interface we highlight features discussing high-temperature corrosion.

Hopefully, by the time you read this, the world will have turned the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic in reality instead of in press conferences, with the vaccines becoming more and more available, and vaccine hesitancy becoming less and less common. Looking back, I can see how much has changed. Some things will come back, and they will be great, with hugs and handshakes between friends and loved ones being one of my favorites. Masks are a pain in the rear, particularly for those who wear glasses, but having to greet from a distance is something that I will miss even less. Social gatherings will be back, including at in-person conferences (a word from our sponsor: maybe the 240th ECS Meeting in Orlando, October 10-14). I realize more than ever that these meetings are the only time that I see some people, especially those outside my specialty. Catching up over a meal and an adult beverage or two is the best way to spend evenings at the meetings.

2020 is a year that will live in infamy. The global pandemic has disrupted the lives and livelihood of almost everyone on the planet, and worse yet, killed millions. Thanks to science, death rates have dropped, and vaccines have been found that will slow and hopefully end the spread of this horrible disease. Life will return to "normal;" but what will that new "normal" be? I look forward to finally seeing my colleagues in person, in Orlando, at the 240th ECS Meeting this fall, but assume that in this new "normal" there will be a virtual component and some level of "distancing."

Isamu Akasaki, Shuji Nakamura, Nick Holonyak, Jr., M. George Craford, and Russell Dupuis received the 2021 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize) "for the creation and development of LED lighting, which forms the basis of all solid state lighting technology... They are recognized not only for the global impact of LED and solid state lighting but also for the tremendous contribution the technology has made, and will continue to make, to reducing energy consumption and addressing climate change."

In a previous article in Interface, various measures of "journal prestige" were discussed. Present metrics of journal impact are based largely on researchers citing the peer-reviewed articles of other researchers that lead to an interwoven network of "forward" and "backward" citations.

Alice Suroviec presents a collection of podcasts that scientists will appreciate.

Within the inventory of highly sensitive, selective, and broadly useful electroanalytical techniques available nowadays resides a very clever approach to the measurement of reaction rates, including those of certain non electrochemical reactions, and the simultaneous quantitative identification of reaction products, including short-lived intermediates. Conceived by Alexander Frumkin in 1958 and first built by Lev Nekrasov, the rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) was a spin-off of the rotating disk electrode (RDE) for which Benjamin Levich developed the hydrodynamic equations defining the electrochemical response. A fascinating account of the development of the RRDE technique by Soviet, American, and British electrochemists during and despite the Cold War can be found in an earlier issue of Interface.

In this installment of the "Looking at Patent Law" articles, we present a case study of a system for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of corrosion on ships, buildings, and bridges. We have chosen this invention to align with the focus of this issue of Interface on the ECS Corrosion Division.

Our energy demands will be increasing for the near future due to factors such as population growth, improved standards of living, increased automation, and increased mobility. New power generation systems are being designed to meet this growing demand efficiently. These designs are also being influenced by our desire to meet more of our energy needs using sustainable sources. One of the primary goals of these advanced designs is to improve operational efficiency, which is low at ∼35% for thermal power plants. A straightforward method to improve efficiency is by operating the thermal power cycles at higher temperatures of up to 1000°C. Higher temperature operations, in turn, require newer heat transfer fluids such as molten salts, molten metals, or gases. The design criteria for these newer power systems are often limited by the choice of materials that can operate under these harsh environments. All of these demands mean that corrosion scientists need to study, understand, and develop strategies to control corrosion in these newer and harsher environments. This issue of Interface aims to provide an overview of some of these corrosion issues, identify promising materials, and highlight the research needs.

In searching for new working fluids for power generation, supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) offers some attractive features for efficient cycles. However, compatibility with structural alloys is a concern. NiCr-based alloys have excellent compatibility at 600°-800°C at 20-30 MPa sCO₂. However, conventional steels have restrictions in temperature because of carburization and accelerated oxidation in sCO₂, similar to observations in CO₂. To assess the impact of carburization on steel mechanical properties, small (25mm long) dogbone tensile bars are being exposed and tested after exposure at 450°-650°C. Only highly alloyed advanced austenitic steels are resistant to carburization at 650°-750°C, suggesting that Crrich oxide scales are good barriers to C ingress. Above 800°C, it is only possible to conduct subcritical evaluations at this time, but initial results suggest most conventional high-temperature Fe- and Ni-based alloys are more rapidly degraded by CO₂ at higher temperatures. Coatings are a potential solution that require more study.

Heat-resisting alloys are designed to survive high-temperature oxidation by forming a slow-growing scale, usually Cr₂O₃, which acts as a barrier between the metal and its environment. However, alloys that succeed in this way when exposed to hot oxygen or air fail to do so in CO₂ gas. Instead, they exhibit rapid "breakaway" corrosion, developing oxides of alloy base metal iron and/or nickel. The growth of these non-protective scales is accompanied by internal carburization of the underlying alloy. Carbon passes through the oxide, dissolves in the alloy, and precipitates chromium as carbide. Removal of chromium from its matrix makes the alloy incapable of reforming chromia, and recovery from breakaway becomes impossible.

Global energy needs continue to grow steadily with increasing population and standard of living. While fossil fuels have been a major source of our energy, they are no longer favorable due to their greenhouse gas emissions and atmospheric pollution; the development of carbon-free sources of energy is crucial. Solar energy promises unlimited amounts of emissions-free energy but suffers from intermittency issues that require expensive secondary energy storage systems to act as baseload power. A thermal energy storage (TES) system can store heat and provide a continuous source of power. Concentrated solar power (CSP) is carbon-free and can ideally be combined with a TES system to provide continuous power. These combined systems operate by focusing a large area of sunlight onto a receiver that contains a TES material to convert the sunlight into thermal energy.

Commercial nuclear power plants in the United States are light water reactors (LWRs) that use water as a coolant, with temperatures ranging between 280°C and 320°C. Water purity is tightly controlled; nevertheless, the high temperatures expose components in the water circuit to degradation by corrosion by many different types of environmental attack. Uniform corrosion occurs across the entire surface of a material and is prevalent in engineering systems to some extent. Site-specific corrosion processes, such as crevice corrosion, intergranular attack, or galvanic corrosion, are common in complex engineering systems that consist of multiple materials joined by welds or other solid state joining processes. Even within a single component, if second phase strengthening is used or if surface defects are present, localized corrosion can occur.

On February 18, 2021, at 3:55 p.m. EST, NASA's Perseverance rover landed at the Jezero Crater on Mars. Perseverance is NASA's most advanced rover to date and traveled 293 million miles (472 million kilometers) over 203 days; an average speed of over 60,000 miles per hour! After several weeks of testing, Perseverance will begin a two-year exploration of Mars' Jezero Crater.

On June 11, the newly elected officers of The Electrochemical Society assumed their posts. We are pleased to welcome Eric D. Wachsman as President and Colm O'Dwyer as 3rd Vice President, joining Executive Committee members Turgut Gür, Senior Vice President; Gerardine Botte, 2nd Vice President; Marca Doeff, Secretary; and Gessie Brisard, Treasurer.

A collection of technology highlights pulled from recent papers published in ECS journals.

Read about the highlights from the 239th ECS Meeting with IMCS 18. This digital meeting featured lectures, technical presentations, live symposia sessions, and special events.

In this issue of Society News we cover an update on publications, editorial board appointments, focus issue topics for the journals, Free the Science Week 2021, news from the divisions, elections results, Staff News, ECS fellowship recipients, and the ECS Board of Directors Report.

In this edition of People News we honor those who have earned promotions and awards, and remember members Isamu Akasaki, C. Charles Austen Angell, Susan Anne Odom, Waldfried Plieth, Morton Schwartz, and George Edward Thompson.

Find out the latest section news from Brazil, Japan, the Pacific Northwest, and San Francisco.

We present the deadlines for Society, Division, Section, and Student Awards.

ECS is proud to announce the following new members for January, February, and March 2021. We also present member anniversaries.

In this issue of Student News we hear updates from 13 student chapters. We also present newly chartered student chapters approved by the ECS Board of Directors.