The IUPAC-sponsored Conference on Solid State Chemistry (SSC 2008), the eighth conference in the series since 1986, was held in Bratislava, Slovakia 6-11 July 2008. The first Solid State Chemistry Conference held in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, was a nucleus of this series, which has grown over the years and resulted in well-established meetings organized biannually, either in Czech or Slovak Republic. The reader can find examples of feedback on this series in the back issues of Pure and Applied Chemistry (PAC), which comprise the papers and opinions of invited speakers of the fifth conference in this series, also IUPAC-sponsored "Solid State Chemistry 2002".SSC 2008 focused on the branches of solid-state and materials chemistry. The event attracted not only scientists but also the producers of new materials and technologies. Over 200 participants from 29 countries representing Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa attended the conference and presented 18 invited talks, 73 lectures, and 146 posters. The scientific program comprised the following seven sessions:- Synthesis and Characterization of Materials- Crystal, Electronic, and Magnetic Structure- Electrochemistry and Molten Salts- Chemistry of Glasses- Novel Inorganic Materials and Nanomaterials- Layered Compounds, Clathrates, and Intercalates- Deposited Films and Surface ChemistryThe invited lectures together with the rigorous choice of further influential lectures, published in this special issue of PAC, cover each topic of the conference and have been an excellent base for the discussions and represent hints for future development in the field. In addition, the lecturers were given the option of submitting manuscripts of research articles, communications, or reviews based upon their lectures or posters to Chemical Papers and Central European Journal of Chemistry (CEJC). The papers accepted by CEJC have already appeared in Vol. 7, Number 2, June 2009. The conference was organized by the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology of Slovak University of Technology, and the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University. The conference continues to provide a friendly atmosphere for the exchange of new results and ideas among groups active in different areas of solidstate and materials chemistry.The 9th Conference on Solid State Chemistry will be held in mid-September 2010 in Prague, Czech Republic. A Web page containing an online "expression of interest" form is already active: www.ssc2010.cz. We look forward to meeting the solid-state and materials chemistry community again at this conference.Milan DrábikSSC 2008 Conference Editor
Stoichiometry and surface structure dependence of hydrogen evolution reaction activity and stability of MoxC MXenes
