A Journey from the Drops of Mercury to the Mysterious Shores of the Brain: The 100-Year Adventure of Voltammetry

Abstract

Voltammetry, which is at the core of electroanalytical chemistry, is an analytical method that investigates and evaluates the current-potential relationship obtained at a given working electrode. If it is used dropping mercury as working electrode, the method is called as polarography. The current year 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of polarography by Czech Jaroslav Heyrovský. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1959 for this discovery and his contribution to the scientific world. A hundred years, within the endless existence of the universe is maybe nothing. A hundred years, in the history of mankind is a line, maybe a short paragraph. But, in science, a hundred years can lead to very significant advances in a field and often to the birth and establishment of an entirely new scientific discipline. Indeed, in the last hundred years, the design and use of new electrochemical devices, depending on the progress in microelectronics and computer technologies, has almost revolutionized voltammetry. Besides these developments, due to the fact that the redox (oxidation/reduction) process is very basic for living organisms; the voltammetry, especially with the beginning of the 21st century, has started to be used as a very powerful tool in neuroscience to solve the mystery of the brain (the basic problems of biomolecules with physiological and genetic importance in brain tissue). This review article is an overview of the 100-year history and fascinating development of voltammetry from Heyrovský to the present.

Keywords:

• Application in brain research
• history
• polarography
• voltammetry

Acknowledgments

I would like to give my warmest thanks Prof Sibel A. Özkan (Ankara Univ. Fac. of Pharmacy, Ankara, Turkey), Prof Bengi Uslu (Ankara Univ. Fac. of Pharmacy, Ankara, Turkey), Prof Yavuz Yardım (Van Yuzuncu Yil Univ. Fac. of Pharmacy, Van, Turkey), Dr Pınar Talay Pınar (Van Yuzuncu Yil Univ. Fac. of Pharmacy, Van, Turkey), Prof Abdülkadir Levent (Batman Univ. Fac. of Science & Literature, Batman, Turkey), Prof Cafer Saka (Siirt Univ. Fac, of Health Science, Siirt, Turkey) and Dr Ertuğrul Keskin (Adıyaman Univ. Fac. of Pharmacy, Adıyaman, Turkey), with whom I took my academic journey together by the shores of Lake Van and performed these studies. My special thanks also goes to Prof Muzaffer Tunçel (Anadolu Univ, Fac of Pharmacy, Eskişehir, Turkey), Prof Neşe Tunçel (Osmangazi Univ, Fac of Medicine, Eskişehir, Turkey), Prof Mehmet Özsöz (Near East Univ., Fac. of Engineering, Nicosia, Cyprus), and Prof Jean-Michel Kauffmann (Free Univ. of Brussels, Fac. of Pharmacy, Brussels, Belgium) for presenting their laboratory facilities and scientific supports especially at the beginning of my journey in Van.

Disclosure statement

The author declares that she has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.