100 years from the Debye-Hückel theory and beyond

This Special Issue celebrates the profound contribution the 1923 paper of Debye and Hückel [1] has had on the field of electrolyte solution thermodynamics. Understanding and modeling electrolyte solutions are crucial in a wide range of fields, including life sciences, chemistry, environmental studies, geology, oceanography, and material sciences, as well as chemical, biochemical, agrochemical, pharmaceutical, electrical, and mining engineering. This is evident from a recent survey on the industrial requirements for thermodynamic and transport properties [2]. The study of electrolyte solutions has once again become a focus of research in the community of chemical engineering thermodynamics in the past 10-15 years. This trend is caused partly by the re-warmed interest of politics into carbon capture and sequestration, as in both steps electrolytes play a central role, and by the energy sectors focus on enhanced oil recovery and energy storage, which consumes considerable amounts of various ions (such as Li+, Na+) that have to be obtained from different sources by electrochemistry and biotechnology.