Topics in the physics of electrochemistry

We describe recent progress in the theory of electrochemical systems which makes important use of concepts and techniques of solid state physics. In particular we describe models of the microscopic layer between the solvent and the metal-ion cores at an electrode-electrolyte interface. These studies make heavy use of the density functional techniques which are widely used in surface physics. As a second example, we describe how the process of alloy dissolution at an electrode-electrolyte interface can be mapped in one limit onto a planar version of the diffusion limited aggregation model.