The field of solid state ionics is multidisciplinary in nature.
Chemists, physicists, electrochimists, and engineers all are involved in
the research and development of materials, techniques, and theoretical
approaches. This science is one of the great triumphs of the second part
of the 20th century. For nearly a century, development of materials for
solid-state ionic technology has been restricted. During the last two
decades there have been remarkable advances: more materials were
discovered, modem technologies were used for characterization and
optimization of ionic conduction in solids, trial and error approaches
were deserted for defined predictions. During the same period
fundamental theories for ion conduction in solids appeared. The large
explosion of solid-state ionic material science may be considered to be
due to two other influences. The first aspect is related to economy and
connected with energy production, storage, and utilization. There are
basic problems in industrialized countries from the economical,
environmental, political, and technological points of view. The
possibility of storing a large amount of utilizable energy in a
comparatively small volume would make a number of non-conventional
intermittent energy sources of practical convenience and cost. The
second aspect is related to huge increase in international relationships
between researchers and exchanges of results make considerable progress
between scientists; one find many institutes joined in common search
programs such as the material science networks organized by EEC in the
European countries.