By Chris Griffiths.
PRiME is an electrochemistry and solid-state technology conference that has been held every 4 years since 1987 in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the largest and most significant research conference, of its kind, in the world. This international gathering is a joint effort of The Electrochemical Society (ECS) along with other pacific electrochemical, chemistry and physics societies.
The week-long conference offered a diverse range of electrochemical and solid-state talks ranging from key note talk by experts to doctorate research papers by postgraduate students. The sheer size of the conference was impressive: over 4100 technical presentations on 56 topical symposia. Much of the research being discussed here supports efforts advancing renewable energy, biomedical, water sanitation, communications, transportation, and corrosion protection.
I, along with a group of postgraduate students, researchers and professors from Swansea University, made the long trip to Hawaii. The research we presented ranged from organic and metallic coatings for corrosion protection to development of low cost iron electrodes for batteries.
Due to the huge number of delegates presenting there were numerous sessions occurring at once, making it difficult to attend as many talks as we would have liked, especially as some of the corrosion talks overlapped. My talk was scheduled in the organic coatings for corrosion protection along with a few members of our group. The talk was well attended and went down very well, with some interesting questions on my area of polyphosphates as well as suggestions for further work.
All of the postgraduate students agreed that attending the conference was hugely beneficial. We were given the opportunity to present our work to world leading experts in our fields of study and received constructive feedback. The diverse range of talks expanded our knowledge and made us think about different methods and techniques we could incorporate into our own work.
Hawaii, as you can imagine, is an incredible place to visit. When we had a bit of time away from the conference we took advantage of the incredible beaches and scenery as well as visiting Pearl Harbour. The final day of the conference was topped off with a Luau with Hawaiian food and drink served whilst we networked and enjoyed a huge firework display, ensuring the trip truly ended with a bang.
